A Tainted Soul, A Pure Promise
by Katte Muffinz
Summary: After escaping England to Death City, Nevada, Soul 'Eater' Evans makes a promise pure to his pain-filled soul that he'd one day return for his mother. It becomes rather difficult to keep his word when he enrolls into  Shibusen.AU-SoulxMaka :Also a comedy:
1. Chapter 1

SE: A Tainted Soul, A Pure Promise

Chapter 1: The Escape

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><p><em>As the doors to the Academy swung open, I knew that I was in my rightful place.<em>

_I knew I could finally be me._

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><p>I struck each key of the concert grand in precision, sending elegant notes floating through the air around me, but the thoughts that filled my mind weren't, <em>don't miss a note<em>; only one word came to me and replayed...over and over again- escape. I needed to escape from it all; this house, this family, these damn expectations and the shadow of my older brother...I needed to rid myself of all of this. I had to leave now...but first, I had to throw this stupid piano recital.

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><p>"What the hell were you thinking, boy?" Father spit out at me. "The concert was going so beautifully and you slipped up! Why can't you be like Wes over there, huh?" He said as he pointed towards the violinist seated in the sofa behind him. "Why are you such a DUNCE?"<p>

I rolled my crimson eyes away from his gaze. "Hey, do you mind not getting your damn saliva all over my face?" Hands suddenly clawed and squeezed my throat and I was lifted off of the ground being pulled closer to a tomato-faced man; it was getting difficult to breathe.

"FATHER, STOP!" Wes rescued me from the hostile grasp of our perfectionist parental figure. "Soul, apologize to Father for your mistake in your recital."

Disgusted with this request, I grimaced while rubbing my attacked gullet, "NEVER! No way in Hell would I ever apologize to that man! He means nothing to me! His desires mean nothing to me! This music crap, this family, this life, it all means NOTHING to me!" I had lost my cool; I was panting, trying to regain my breath from my outburst. "This is so uncool..."

The man who was already furious with me had now reached an all-new level of animosity. "You stupid boy! You should be grateful for everything I had to give up for a snot-nosed little brat like you!" I could see a pulsing vein on his forehead that looked as though it was ready to blowout.

Then, a sobbing, fragile voice had come from the doorway of the loathe-soaked suite. "That's enough...Leave Soul alone..." It was Mother. Her habitually vibrant eyes were puffy and her flawless cheeks were tear-streaked.

Father's expression and tone softened when he caught a glimpse of his wife's depressed state. "But, Dear, he must be chastised for his neglect to play well!"

"NO! He mustn't! Soul, Darling, come here, get away from your father." She beckoned me into her embrace. "He's a 16 year old boy, but you're treating him like some misbehaving puppy! Now leave him be!" I could feel her warm tears on my shoulder. "I will accompany you to your sleeping chamber, My Dear."

I had my back turned to my father- the man who brimmed my heart with resentment when I set my eyes on his horrid face and when I heard his despicable, raspy voice; the cold-shoulder was also continued to Wes- the man who's musical talents I deeply respected, and who I loved as he was my brother...but he was also the man who condemned me to a life of humiliation and criticism. I retreated to my room with my beautiful, loving mother, where she held me as I drowned in the anguish of this foolish existence and eventually, as I fell into slumber.

_I'm going to leave the name Evans behind me. It will dissipate into the depths of my memories and will be long forgotten. I will no longer be Soul Evans. I... will start anew._ Dreams of freedom washed over my consciousness; I was free of the punctilious dictations and the troubles of tonight, which had now been consigned to oblivion, but just for the evening, only to be conjured up once more when the morning sun arrives.

_Why's my neck hurting?_ Groggily, I propped myself onto my elbow and found that I had fallen asleep in a cramped position on Mother's lap. _So, that's it? No wait..._ An overwhelming rush of the previous night's events invaded my brain and I instinctively reached up to my throat which my father had tried to ripped out. My impulsive reaction had woken my warm-hearted parent up.

"Soul, Dear?" she pet my snowy hair and sweetly smiled. "Go bathe. You didn't get a chance to last ni-" she cut herself off and frowned, recalling the violent actions her husband had performed towards me.

"Eh, don't worry about it, Mom. I'm okay." I slid off of my bed and heard a _'tap'_ on the hardwood flooring. It was so chaotic, I didn't get a chance to change my cloths or even remove my shoes...

I got a towel and headed off to the bathroom. I took a relieving, sweltering shower and let it wash away the grief that I let come to the surface.

I can't help but to make an effort to devise some kind of idea to get out of this pathetic lifestyle. Go to the other side of town? No, they'd snuff me out to easily...leave the city? No... I need something more drastic...I need to go further than just settling across the metropolis...Then, it hit me.

I have a plan... I'm going to need some of the money in the family safe and I'll need a plane ticket to the US from England. Tonight, I'm going to make a break for it...and I'm not coming back.

But I must keep this to myself. Dad definitely can't know...Wes will only try to talk me out of it...and Mom...though it breaks my heart to leave my wonderful caretaker here, I can't tell her that I'm departing, or she'll force me into a change of heart with her weeping.

I smirked as I dwelled on my intentions, but I had to conceal my excitement from everyone... I had to...or I'll never leave this Hell-hole. _I can't blow my cover...I'm done with all this shit. I'm done with dad and the critiques...and I'm done with being Wes'_ _damn understudy._ I need to stay my nonchalant self. Then, when I'm on new grounds, I can start my new life. That is when I'll celebrate.

After I threw a polo and some regular blue jeans on, I went downstairs for breakfast. _Mmm, smells good. I wonder what the house chef is making..._ I went into the kitchen to see what was cooking up but was astonished when I found the person who was preparing the delicacies that had such a lovely aroma. "Mom, when did you know how to cook?"

"I wasn't always rich, Soul. I had to make food for myself when I was younger." She gave a tender grin which was contagious. "Here, try it. My mother used to make these for breakfast for me all the time when I was little." She handed me a plate that swaddled a golden brown crepe which seemed to be filled with a variety of fruits drenched in a sugary syrup. "Everything is from scratch. No prepackaged mixes." I must've appeared confused because she went further into detail, "it's when all the dry ingredients are already mixed together and you just have to add the liquid." She chuckled slightly under her breath and pinched my cheek, "You spoiled little rich boy. You gotta know your commoners'food."

I liked it when she pinched my face like that. Her fingertips were so delicate and never hurt me. It reminded me of when I was an innocent little tot..._those were the days..._ I took a giant chomp out of the thin pancake and it was like eating Heaven. The chefs had made crepes before, but not nearly as delicious as this! "Wow, that is...tasty." I couldn't help but to drool as I stuffed my face with the rest of the hotcake. Mom giggled at me and gave me another one.

"Eat as much as you'd like. There's plenty." She kissed me on the forehead and continued her business on the stovetop.

_She should cook this more often_...oh, no...wait... Seeing the predicament of me fleeing, I was saddened. This would be the first and last time I would ever get have a home-cooked meal by my own mother... I looked up at her. Our crimson eyes locked and I asked, "can I have the recipe to this...? Y-you know, just in case I want to try to cook this?"

"Sure, sweetheart. Let me go write it down." As she strolled off, her silky vanilla locks plumed behind her and the thoughts of living alone flooded my head...I'd be without my mother...I'd be without her guidance. Misery swept at me, but I had no choice but to try to pushed it away.

_Snap out of it, dammit! You won't have mother to being your handicap through everything!_ I shook off the melancholy wave just as mom had returned with a slip of paper.

"This is the recipe. Follow exactly what it says, okay?" She pinched my cheek once more and seemed to speak to herself, "oh, my little grew up so fast...I'm gonna miss you, my young chap..."

_She's gonna miss me? What's that supposed to mean? Was she on to me?_ Panic embedded itself into my veins and I quickly shook off her stare. I looked at the note. _Okay, good, it's just_ _the recipe..._ I flipped it over and my heart skipped a my eyes deceiving me? Did she really write this? _Last step- come back to visit me when you're settled into a family._ I don't know what to feel. Devastated that she knows what I'm up to, or should I be ecstatic that she's fine with me leaving? "Mom, I-"

"It's okay, sweety...I'll buy you a plane ticket to where ever you want to go. But do you mind staying one more night here at home? I'll get you a flight for early morning." I only answered with a nod. I couldn't speak with this huge lump in my throat.

I didn't realize I was sobbing until Mother came over to caress my trembling self. "I love you, Mom...thank you..." Now I realized, I can't despise the name Evans completely, because I don't hate all of the Evans...

Just before dawn had broken, I had arrived at the airport with mom alongside me. I had only packed two bags that I could carry on my person-that's really all I needed, and I held in my right hand my ticket out of this hectic life. Departing time was 5AM and it was four forty-five. I need to start boarding now, so I said my last goodbye to Mother, one of the only people who had loved me for me, giving her a kiss on the cheek and folding her in my arms as she did the same._ I'll see you again...when I'm married and have kids of my own...and a beautiful wife...then I'll come to see you again, just as you want._

I'm turning over a new leaf. A new life is waiting for me. A place where no one knows who I am and where people will judge me by their own experience, not by comparison to my sibling.

I was on my way to the United States. I was on my way to Death City, Nevada.


	2. Chapter 2

SE: A Tainted Soul, A Pure Promise

Chapter 2: Starting Anew

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><p><em>As the doors to the Academy swung open, I knew that I was in my rightful place.<em>

_I knew I could finally be me._

* * *

><p>I stepped off of the plane and inhaled until my lungs were at its full capacity, then I let out great sigh of contentment.<em> I'm home free, at last.<em> I displayed my shark teeth in an ample grin and continued on through the port to get my bags checked through. Right now, I don't have a care in the world. _Hold on..._ I set my bags on the conveyer belt for the x-ray and passed through the body check._ I don't have a place to go..._

I called for a taxi cab and left the gates of the airport. _What's the point when I have no idea where I'm going...?_ I sat on the edge of a nearby concreted-flowerbed. Checking my watch, it was about one in the afternoon. Questions raced through my conscience; where will I go? What am I gonna do from here? Why didn't I think _everything_ through? Dammit...how will I survive on my own...? Just then, I recalled my mother packing a notebook she's written in. It was more like a diary. It was a black and gray plaid-patterned journal with a red leather belt that buckled at the front cover.

_When you feel lost_, _read this, My Darling._

I smiled._ How did she know that I'd be clueless about where to go...?_ "I guess it's because I'm such a 'Mommy's Boy,'huh?" At that moment, the taxi pulled up. I entered and shut the car door behind me. I strapped myself in for the ride and jammed my luggage next to me.

"Sir, where're we off to?" The cab driver glanced at me through the rear-view mirror. I stared at the back of his head still uncertain of my destination.

"Uh, to Death City...uhm...j-just keep driving. I'll figure out where to go."

With the tilt of his cap, he drove off and away from the airport. I began to rummage through my bags and pinpointed the guidebook from mom. _Aha, there you are._ I unbuckled the stationary and revealed the contents of what my nurturer had composed. Unexpected greens came spilling out from the behind the cover of the notebook. "What the...?" I mumbled to myself. That's right...I don't have American money. Why did mom have U.S. Dollars on her? "Oh...huh? What's this?" A note was written on the next page.

**Soul, here is $300 in cash and a check for $200. I have an American bank account from when your father and I came to sight-see. It's my private** **bank account and it is under my name. The pin number is 1049. Use the cash wisely while you can. Try to find some** **way to make money. Be careful.**

I was delighted to see that she was so prepared for something like this. It's like she saw the future or something...I swear, she's the best mom anyone could ever ask for. I began to shut the book when her penmanship noted in red ink had caught my eye. _Oh, what's this?_

**Once you get into Death City, go to Shibusen. It is a combat training school in the center of the entire city. There, I believe that they can help you for a short time with living quarters. But you're going to have to find an apartment of some sort. Good luck, sweetheart.**

_Shibusen, huh?_ I thought to myself. I looked put of the window just so that I could find that we were driving through the desert. _She never mentioned anything about it being in the middle of a freaking desert!_

"Hey, cab driver, do you mind dropping me off at, uh, Shibusen?"

"No problem, sonny." He gave a polite grin and tipped his hat once more.

I replied with a nod and sat back. After about 20 more minutes, we finally arrived at the outskirts of town.

And that's when I saw it. That combat academy mother talked about in her notebook. Shibusen. It was enormous! I liked the design though...two three-holed, three-toothed white skulls surrounded another three-toothed skull of the same color which had red spikes sticking out through the holes. There were also four giant burning candles placed all around the castle-like building. There were about eight black, red, and white towers varying in height. Damn, I just couldn't stop staring at it. Now _this_ was cool.

We neared the building faster than I had expected. Now sitting in the taxi up close, I saw the many flights of stairs. "Sir, the drive will be $25."

"Cool, here you go." I handed him the said amount of cash I had on me. That reminds me, I should get a wallet to keep all of this at least somewhat tidy.

"Thank you. Have a nice day."

"You too." I retrieved my baggage and left the car, shutting the door behind me. I stared at the steps leading to where I would construct my new life. Feeling confident, I sauntered up the staircase rather than dragging my feet like usual. I was excited for something in my life for once. I was ready...and I was eager...to leave the name Evans.

I finally came to the colossal doors of the Academy. Once I enter this foundation and enroll...everything I once knew can all disappear. The high expectations, the darkness that Wes had casted over me all of my life, and lastly, my stupid, brutal father can all be forgotten. I stretched my hand forward and touched the handle and pushed. As the doors to the Academy swung open, I knew I was in my rightful place. A fresh beginning and a change of my name. I don't have to live up to these superior apprehensions. I can act however the hell I want to from now on. And in spite of all that's happened, I knew I could finally be me.

I wandered the halls aimlessly walking under each corridor searching for the main office. I read the names of the classrooms above each door. _Class Crescent Moon? Weird name...a firing range...dojo...dispensary? Well, it __**is**__ a combatant school..._I hiked on still pursuing the headquarters and studied another guidepost. _Wait, a dance studio? But isn't this a fighter's school...?_ Finally, Soul came across a gate with the heading "Death Room" above it. It _looked_ like it should be the main office. I entered to see another hall framed with guillotines.

"Woah...that's cool..." I stared in awe at the architect as I walked. I was introduced to a spaced room with clouds floating about and crosses scattering the ground. A mirror stood in the center of the office. A man appeared out from behind the window. He wore a black raggedy cloak and a eggshell mask that was similar to the skulls on the building. "Uhm, hello-"

"HELLO, HELLO! WAZZUP, WAZZUP, WAZZUP?" This must've been the chairman of the school? "You don't look familiar. Are you new?" I couldn't tell if he were smiling or not, but he sure seemed like he would be under that masquerade. He seemed cool though.

"Are you the Chairman of Shibusen?"

"Yes, yes, I am! What is it that you need?"

"I would like to enroll...here at Shibusen."

The man buckled his body in an awkward angle and spoke again, "OH! Goody! Well then, I guess you're going to need my name. I am Shinigami-sama. Also known as Lord Death. You can call me what you want between those two. So what is your name?"

"I'm Soul Evans." Wait...

"Evans? As in the well-known wealthy family of musicians?"

"Y-yes, but..." No, I was no longer Evans. I wanted to make it unique...I wanted something that you don't see everyday...I got it. "Call me Eater. Soul Eater."

"Okay, , I'll get your paperwork!" Shinigami-sama strutted off to fetch the documents. I thanked him and shoved my fists into my pants pockets.

I patiently waited for the Death God to return, so I set myself astray into my own thoughts. _Considering the type of school this is, I think I won't stand out too bad. I mean, it __**does **__have a strange setup...and the name of the city it's in...well, Death City. Come on, that's not a normal name for a city...plus it's in the middle of a desert! Ahh, I think I'll enjoy living here_... Realization struck me. _Shoot, I don't have a place to live yet..._

"Okay, -oh, I apologize, I mean Eater, I have the papers right here. Did you need a place? We have dormitories, or if you need a temporary place while you move into an apartment, we have visitors'rooms; they aren't as welcoming as the dorms, though."

"I think I'll stick with the guest rooms." I scratched the back of my head.

"Alrighty, then!" he clapped his foam finger-like hands together and followed up with, "now, I think I should explain how the school works. Shibusen is a combatant school where we train students in different aspects of fighting styles. We have the Army, Navy, Marines...We've got warriors, gladiators, martial artists and ninja assassins. And yes, ninja assassins sounds a little sketchy, but we offer many abnormal honing. Questions so far?" I shook my head so he continued. "You will be partnered with one or two people. They will be the person you train with on a daily basis. In some situations, you will be grouped with two or three pairs. Now, the different rankings range from one to three star meisters, much like a private, corporal or sergeant. The highest ranking is deathscythe, which is the highest ranking a student can get. A deathscythe would work as my personal lieutenant, but it is a difficult rank to achieve. There are only eight deathscythes scattered throughout the world, with two of them in Death City. They are Spirit Albarn and Marie Mjolnir. Marie is a teacher here." He took a breath. "All students get a $200 allowance weekly as pocket money, but spend it wisely. School starts at seven in the morning and...I believe that's it. Questions?"

"Uhm...no, nothing comes to mind." I looked down at the enrollment contract and saw 'full name'and 'pseudonyms.'"Oh, actually, I do have a question. What's up with the name changing?"

"Oh, students are allowed to change their name when they enter Shibusen, but are stuck with it for two years. So if you were to legitimately change your name to 'Eater'from 'Evans,'and you wanted to change it back in the middle of the two years, you would not be able to.

"Oh, alright." I nodded. I then mumbled, "I doubt I'll be changing it back anyways..."

Well, I'll show you to your visitors'room then." Lord Death brought me along corridors and down the the school basement handing me a key to my room. He was right. I wasn't exactly heartwarming. But oh well. As long as I have a place to live, then it's all good.

Soon after, he showed me around the school. He led me to the shower rooms, the restrooms, and the infirmary. Since the visitor's room didn't have a shower in it, I'd have to come up to the washrooms to bathe. I didn't mind though. It'll get me used to the school. As we started our way back to his office, he again asked if I had any questions about the facility. Since I understood what was going on, he handed me a paper.

"What's this, Lord Death?"

"It's the name of your homeroom teacher. It'll take about a week for all your papers to go through the system. You came at a good time. Students are still going to be on vacation for about a week and a half left. School starts back up next Monday."

So that's why the school was so empty. It was a Wednesday and I came here probably thirty after one so I was expecting to see at least a few people venturing the halls. I didn't even see any of the dorming students here. "Oh, alright. So, since I chose all my classes in your office while I signed all the paperwork, I'll get my schedule from this teacher?" I pointed to the name on the note. "Marie M-joll-neer...? M-joll-nire...? M-jol-" Wow, difficult last name...

"Mjolnir. Here, we don't call them by last name like . We call them by first name with the respectful title after. For you, it would be Marie-sensei or Ms. Marie, you get it?"

"Yea, I think so." I looked at the slip again._ Marie-sensei._ I liked it. It was a lot easier than Mjolnir...

"Well, you can go about Death City and explore if you'd like. Come back at dusk and if you get lost, just come by my office and I'll help you out."

"Thank you, Shinigami-sama."

"Not a problem at all! See yaaa!" he waved jubilantly and was off to his own business.

Yea...I was definitely gonna enjoy myself here.

I strolled along the streets after returning from the bank to deposit that check mom gave me. I passed by an old motel where a man next to a motorcycle stood. Man, that's cool. I wish I had a bike...

"OI, KID! You seem like you need some kinda way to get around. You want this bike?" He gestured toward the beauty. It was an orange and yellow cruiser; it was very sleek and was a two seater. "I'll take $300 for it."

No way! This was awesome! I have $475 on me now because Shinigami-sama had given me my pocket money for the week. "I'll take it!" I pulled out the amount required and finished the exchange in just seconds. "Thanks!" The man nodded and I drove away. I remember driving one back in England once. I was pretty good for a first-timer. "Man, today turned out great. I'm free from dad, I got to enroll in the Academy, I got a temporary room, and I get a bike! This is one of the coolest days ever!" I rode to the market to get some ramen cups and other instant food. I was in the aisle for what I was planning to purchase when a girl with pigtails came up next to me. She had sandy blonde hair and big forest green eyes and peachy cream cheeks. The girl wore pink sweatpants and a pink jogging sweater zipped up the front to about midway up her stomach with a stripe going down the arms. She was kinda cute.

She smiled and politely greeted me, "Hi!" She took a couple of cups of ramen and set them in her basket. I grinned back and greeted her as well while pulling some merchandise from the shelf for myself. She curved her mouth once more at me and walked off. She had an adorable face but she had such small boobs...

I finished at the store so I then rode my cruiser straight to my new living chamber.

"Oh, I'll be starting in the new semester...hopefully I don't catch too much attention," I said as I prepared to sleep. The jet lag really took its toll on me, along with all the excitement that was tied to this day. I tossed and turned a tad to get comfortable. I was exhausted but I just couldn't fall asleep. I was too neurotically energized with all the luck I've had so far. I was satisfied.

I'm actually doing fine on my own. Now that I'm Soul Eater, I can do what I please without an overbearing father scolding me for every wrong move. I'm free.


	3. Chapter 3

SE: A Tainted Soul, A Pure Promise

Chapter 3: Who Is She?

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><p>"<em>The name's Maka. Maka Albarn. It's a pleasure to be your partner."<em>

_Wait a minute...Albarn...does that mean...she's the deathscythe's daughter?_

* * *

><p>An pestering beeping came from the side table. I groaned and rolled away from the sound. "It's too early to be up..." I concealed my face and ears under the quilt and my pillow. That's when I realized why I was getting up so early. I hopped out of bed. "It's Monday! I almost forgot! I start at Shibusen today! I gathered up what I needed for my shower and I dashed to the washrooms. Quickly, I started up the steaming water; I jumped in and shampooed and conditioned my hair. I then soaped my body to rinse. In all, that took about 15 minutes. I then went and got dressed. I wore my light blue boxers and topped it with a pair of tan jeans. Next, I threw on my orange t-shirt on and pulled on my black leather jacket. I slipped my black shoes on and walked over to the mirror. Combing through my hair with my hands, I slid a black hairband into my snowy locks. I cleansed my pointing chompers and made last minute check-ups. "Alright, I think I'm ready."<p>

I retrieved my bathing supplies and returned them to my room. Then I headed back up to ground level to start my first day.

The halls were flooded with the acknowledgment of companions uttering 'how was your break?'or 'I missed you!'I was dreamily being gazed at by what appeared to be freshman ladies. A vein pulsed in my forehead. _Honestly?_ I continued on to discover my destination. I passed a lady holding a clipboard with golden wavy mane clothed in a yellow and black long-sleeved dress that came down to her ankles. She also wore an eye patch with a zigzagged yellow pattern over her left eye and showed her saffron iris in the other. I watched as some students walked into her classroom saying, "good morning, Marie-sensei!" _Oh so that's who Marie-sensei is..._ So I followed the others and passed by the woman.

"Good morning! You don't look familiar. Are you new?" I nodded in response to her sweet voice and smile. Looking down at her notes. "Then you must be...Soul Eater?"

"Yes, ma'am. You're Marie-sensei, right?"

"Mhhm! Go ahead inside and look for your last name in the piles of paper for your schedule."

Again, I nodded and entered her class. There were numerous piles of paper lining her steel desk. "So it's by last name...then I gotta look for the 'E'pile..." My schedule was at the top of the heap. "Ahh, 'Eater,'there it is." I examined my class roster.

**Mon., Wed., Fri.: Combatant Classes**

**period 1- Mjolnir, Marie; homeroom**

**period 2- Grace, Vasily; Targeting/ Firing Range**

**period 3/4- Barett, Sid; Close Combat**

**-lunch-**

**period 5/6- Nygus, Mira- Self-Treatment&Survival**

**period 7- Dow, Asha- Stealth Training**

**period 8- Stein, Franken; Specialized Training**

**Tue., Thu.: Academic Classes**

**period 1- Mjolnir, Marie; homeroom**

**period 2- Chiri, Sekai - World Geography**

**period 3/4- Barett, Sid; Algebra I**

**period 5/6- Stein, Franken; Earth Science**

**period 7- Nygus, Mira; Health/P.E.**

**period 8- Dow, Asha; Teacher's Assistant**

"Hmm...odd schedule...interesting classes..." Folding my paper and stuffing it into my pocket, I was off to find myself a seat. The class had a lecture-room set up and was quite spacious. To the left, I saw more gawking, starry eyed girls as I dragged my feet by.

"Woah, who is he?" I heard a brunette whisper.

Her ginger friend gossiped back, "I don't know, but he's totally hot! Look at him, he's so laid back and cool!" Seeing her sigh and stare to the ceiling to fantasize, I grumbled and benched myself a couple of rows above and several seats away from them.

"Ignorant...they don't know anything about me and they've already got a crush going...this is great. I'm capturing more attention than I want..." I groaned into my palms. The first warning bell rang just then. "Huh...? I'm early? I didn't even realize..." The bustling in the hallway increased as the scholars scurried to class before they were caught after the last bell.

At that moment, I heard a pleasant voice. It sounded slightly childish but at the same time somewhat mature. I feel like I heard it somewhere. "I'm sorry I'm late, Marie-sensei!"

Ms. Marie smiled. "No, no! It's okay! The next bell hasn't rung yet! Go ahead take your schedule off my desk and find a seat." I made an effort to keep myself from seeing who it was. It was probably just my imagination anyway.

"Thank you!"

_Just forget about it, Soul...There's no one you could possibly remember here. You just moved here!_ That's when I couldn't take it anymore. I had to see who it was. So I set my ruby eyes to the origin of the recognizable tone. _It's her!_

That girl from the market! She went to Shibusen, too? I gaped at her the way I hated how others did to me. But I couldn't help it. It was tough to look away...

She had her hair in a twin ponytail style, and her attire was that of a white long-sleeved casual button-up with a mustard-colored sweater vest atop. Her neck was lined with a deep-green and white tie. Over all of that was a charcoal trench coat that was perfectly fit around her torso and trailed off the end like a cloak. A red plaid miniskirt draped her hips and she also wore black boots with white buckles. Her petite frame made her look like a high school freshman, but this was a sophomore class, so I'm sure she wasn't as old as I thought. _Is that really her?_ She started her way up the pews of the lecture room towards me. Then, I saw her eyes. There was no mistaking it. I remember looking down into those large olives just less than a week ago._ It __**is**__ her...!_ She abruptly made eye contact with me. I was taken aback and skipped a heartbeat. _Shit...why am I so nervous? I don't even know her!_

As she glided nearer, I could smell her perfume...it smelled like...sweet petals. It was a lovely aroma. I was given another dainty grin, the same one she had given me at the store. "Hi." Again, the _same_ way she had said when I was grocery shopping.

I felt my cheeks begin to pink. _NO, NO! You don't know her! Don't be a dork and have a crush already...jeez. I might as well turn into one of those girls that are all head-over-heels for me..._ I attempted to play it cool. "Hey." I leaned back onto the back of my chair casually. She giggled and went to her seat. I sighed, "Man, getting all blushy like that is so uncool..." Rubbing my eyes, I added on, "...and over a flat-chested girl like her...? Ugh, I'm so lame..."

The last warning bell rang and Marie-sensei shut the door. "Okie dokie, class! Let's get started-" She tripped over her own feet and stumbled over to her rolling chair; it almost rolled completely away from her but she managed to grab a hold of it to just barely save herself from a faceplant. A shaken chuckle escaped her, "oh, hoho, clumsy me! I need to be more careful, huh?" She regained her poise and spoke in a more serious manner. "So today I will be officially writing down your partnerships! Pair up! Ready?"

The class stirred with excitement. I looked around to see who was ready to partner up with one another. There were two girls wearing the same outfit, one with pink short hair that came just above her shoulders and the other with long chestnut hair down to her chest. They obviously desired partnership with each other. I scanned the area some more. A guy that sported a bald cranium and a pair of horn-like gelled hair and glasses with a swirly pattern on them looked as though he wanted to buddy with a guy with visors. The next pair my view came across were of a guy with corn-rows, rayband specs and had two kids with him. I guess those would be his partners...?

"YAHOOOOOO! TSUBAKI, YOU WILL BE THE GREAT BLACKSTAR'S PARTNER, RIGHT?" A kid with spiky blue hair was making a commotion on the opposite side of the room.

The girl he had been talking to, apparently Tsubaki, responded, "of course, Blackstar!" She meekly smiled at the obviously conceded boy.

I didn't realize anyone was sitting next to me until I heard an explosion of laughter to my right. A large-breasted girl with chin-length blonde hair wearing a blue and white cowboy hat, red belly shirt, white tie, and puffy jean shorts was hysterically laughing at a nosebleeding boy on the ground; he had black hair with three white lines on the left side and was wearing a black suit. A taller girl that looked related to the other blonde wore the same outfit, only she had jean pants and somewhat smaller breasts. She also had longer hair.

"Come on, Kid! Get over it! It's just your name! Why don't you write it in all caps? It'll be symmetrical then!"

"Liz...YOU'RE A GENIUS!" He spouted tears of joy. What's up with this guy...? He got up and scrawled on a piece of paper. When he held it up to marvel at it, I could see that 'DEATH THE KID' was etched into it. The so-called Kid embraced the said Liz, "Thank you, Liz! You've saved me!"

"Jeez, gimme a break..." Liz was up-front about her irritation with the boy. "Your damn OCD makes me wanna hit you sometimes..."

_So that's why he freaked out._ I took my eyes away from the drama that had just been displayed at my side. I skimmed through the class once more and saw 'Olive Eyes'again. She was reading a book all alone. _Ahh, so she's a bookworm._

I had no idea that I had been staring at her for some time until Ms. Marie tapped my shoulder. "Soul, would you like to be paired with Maka?"

_Maka._ "Uh, sure." Marie-sensei motioned for Maka to come over to where I was. She followed the order and came right over with a tiny bounce in her strut. The teacher walked away to go pair up more of the students. "H-hey, again."

"I'm Ma-"

"No, wait. Don't introduce yourself to me yet..." I wanted to tell her what kind person I was before I knew her full name. "Uhm, after school, will you meet me at the dance studio...?"

"Uhh...sure, I guess so." She smiled that same smile that kept making me so nervous.

I tried to maintain composure. I shone my jagged teeth and replied, "cool." She took the empty seat to my left.

"Well, until then, just call me Maka, okay?"

"Alright. Then call me Soul." Though I asked for no introductions, we still managed to go against my wishes to an extent.

It was now seventh period. _I have to go to,_ "Stein..." I mumbled to myself. I looked over each door to see which one was his class.

"Going to Dr. Stein's class, too?" Maka had come up behind me. "It's this way." She looked over my shoulder at my schedule that was held in my hand, "cool, you have him for your last two periods like me!"

"Uh, yea, I guess I do." We sauntered along the hallways until we came up to the professor's door. We entered and I was surprised to see the man before me.

Everything had stitches- his face, his lab coat, his shirt, his chair, heck, even his classroom walls had stitches! But that wasn't the only thing, he had a screw going in through the left side of his skull! I had to admit, it was pretty cool to see all this, but at the same time, strange.

"Hello, I'm Dr. Stein. You're Soul?" He pointed a finger at me and I nodded so he continued, "oh, Maka, how are you?"

"I'm fine, thank you."

"No one else is in this class?" I asked. The second warning bell for the next period had just alarmed and there wasn't one other student trying to cram into the class.

"It's specialized training. Every Academy pair has their own unique class to attend to strengthen their individual abilities." His eyes hid in the glare of his glasses. "Now let's begin." He had a table covered in a stitched cloth in the middle of his classroom. "Come over here and remove the cover."

Maka and I walked over and pulled the sheet off at the same time to reveal a number of odd weapons before us. There were gauntlets, katanas, staffs, crossbows, and scythes laid out in front of us. There was nothing really special about these weapons, except for the fact that they look more like wall ornaments rather than something you'd use for a battle.

"I know this is strange artillery, but there is a reason why I've shown these weapons to you. In the past, we had to endure skirmishes against witches and demons. I know this is also odd, but it is quite true. That is why this city was created along with the school. For hundreds of years we've had brawls against these creatures but eventually extinguished them using these sorts of weapons. Nowadays, this school is like a military school. Everyone is taught to use guns, knives and other common weaponry; the special classes that are suited for students that have a desire to be something other than a Regular are given those classes. But, to be safe, we would like to keep some students educated in the art that our ancestors used against the fiends we had defied and defeated long ago, in the case that they make a return. It is quite unlikely that the reappearance of these savages will occur, but we are better safe than sorry. So, would you like to wield one of these weapons?"

"I sure do, Dr. Stein. I want the reaper's tool. " My partner stood firmly unbent and followed up with, "I mean, after all, it _is_ a family tradition to wield a scythe."

"That's what I was expecting from a girl like you." The scientist smiled and awarded her with the blade. "So, what about you, Soul? Do you wish to wield one of these weapons?"

I was hesitant. I mean, I didn't have any connections to a scythe like Maka did. She was at least familiar with the apparatus. "I think I'll stick mostly as a Regular...but, I'll practice using it just in case I need to back up my partner." The professor glanced at me questioningly. "I mean, if that's alright-"

"Oh, it's completely fine. It's still helpful. You'll be here on your designated days, but you will only be learning basic techniques; Maka however, will commit to memory more advanced tactics." He lit a cigarette and took a long drag. "Oh, and Maka, you will be taking a scythe home to practice, understand?"

"Yes, sir, I do."

"Good. Then let's start with how to seize and spin the weapon."

"Hey, I need to go get my stuff from my locker. Go ahead to the dance studio and prepare what you need to," Maka said as she dashed to gather her belongings.

"Sure thing." I went off to search for the dance studio._ If I remember clearly, it was pretty close to the dispensary..._I let my legs listen to my instinct and was pleased to see that they didn't fail me. I opened the door to see a wide, wood-paneled floor with mirrors in the place of walls. In the far right corner of the flat, a baby grand piano sat awaiting me to produce a musical note out of it.

I hated to perform in front of people, but this girl...Maka...she made me feel like showing my true self to her. I wanted to throw this away, but I guess I found another person who would make that impossible.

I know that I barely know the chic, but I swear, there was something about her that compelled me...even if I really didn't want to admit it.


	4. Chapter 4

SE: A Tainted Soul, A Pure Promise

Chapter 4: Come With Me

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><p>"<em>The name's Maka. Maka Albarn. It's a pleasure to be your partner."<em>

_Wait a minute...Albarn...does that mean...she's the deathscythe's daughter?_

* * *

><p>I set myself down on the piano bench. Gliding my hand across the keys'cover, the creeping of reluctancy to play bubbled in my chest. Now that I think about it, do I really <em>want<em> to play for her...?

"Soul? Oh, there you are. What are you doing in the corne-" She became aware of what was standing before me. "You play the piano?"

"Uhm...yes." I darted my eyes away from her's to prevent eye contact.

"Is this what you were gonna show me...?"

"At first, yea...but I change my mind. I'll just go back to my guest room now..."

She seemed annoyed at this. What did I do? And why did she get so bothered by it so quickly? "Why can't I hear you play? Is there something wrong you performing? Are you too shy to play in front of me?" I could see a vein of her's pulse from where I sat. "If you feel so nervous, then just pretend like I'm not here. Then play your heart out. I promise I won't judge you."

...Won't...judge me? She really wouldn't do that...? I hadn't known that I wasn't breathing until I felt a little lightheaded. My name was called several times and I gulped in a breath.

"You said you were gonna show me something..." She crossed her arms and pouted looking away from me, obviously still finding my defiance to perform a nuisance.

Wow, what a bratty attitude...brats aren't cool. But...she _did_ say that she wouldn't judge me...This was the first time I would have someone evaluate my personality...not just by how I looked or how lesser I was... "I'm sorry." I took in a gulp. "I...I want to play a little song for you." I turned to face the instrument. Lifting the cover, I could hear my heart pounding heavily in my ears. _She wasn't going to judge me..._ I turned my head back to see her once again and gave my signature shark grin, "this is the type of person I am." I gave another confrontation to the object and set my fingertips down on the ivory. The first pitch hit our eardrums. Then, like it was second-nature, a dark, mysterious tune flowed from my soul to the grand, and after three or so minutes, it was over. All the emotion that I wasn't able to express in my playing before had poured out for myself and for my partner to heed.

The room was deathly quiet. _Had she gone against her word?_ Just as I thought that, I heard light footsteps and a one-man applause coming toward me. I stayed put in the position I was in. The sounds stopped and a hand was placed on my right shoulder. I turned to acknowledge a tender smile spread across the lips of Olive Eyes. She removed her hand from where she had laid it and held it outstretched in my face. "The name's Maka. Maka Albarn. It's a pleasure to be your partner."

I grasped her hand and shook it. "Soul Eater. The feeling's mutual." She chortled and tilted her head a bit. Woah, _that_ was cute. I stopped myself from getting flushed by occupying my mind with a realization. _Wait a minute...I feel like I've heard that name before..._Albarn...didn't Lord Death say that Spirit Albarn was one of the deathscythes here? And since Marie-sensei is a teacher...then Spirit was the current lieutenant of Shinigami-sama! So does that mean...she's the deathscythe's daughter? Now I know why she had that attitude earlier...she was a military brat, wasn't she?

"Albarn...? Are you the deathscy-"

She appeared to cringed at the thought of the man. "Don't even mention him. He's not a father to me! He's nothing but a dirty, perverted cheater!" Her bangs shaded her eyes from view and her hand felt hot as I watched her reaction. Was she about to cry?

I let her hand go. "Oi? Are you alright?" I tried to make eye contact. I stood and held her by the shoulders. "Maka?"

Her hand raised to her cheek and seemed like she wiped a tear away. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't bring personal matters into this, huh?" She put on that unhurt lip curl again, though I could tell she was making an effort to hide frustration and anguish. "Well, let's get going, shall we?"

_So you have father-issues too...? I guess we're one in the same._ "Alright, let's go!" She took some time to gather her things while I waited since I didn't have any belongings on me.

As we strolled the halls side by side, she asked me, "so, what apartment complex do you live in?"

"Oh, uh, like I said earlier, I'm living in one of the school's visitors'rooms right now." I jammed my fists into my jacket pockets.

"Oh? Those are so crummy!" She looked appalled at my living conditions. "OH! I know! Why don't you come live in my apartment with me? It's pretty decent, I guess. There are two bedrooms and no one is really living with me besides my cat, Blair." Were her cheeks beginning to redden? "There's a small kitchen and living room and then the bathroom is also kinda tiny, but it's a good place. So whaddaya say?" She locked her forests with my crimsons and stared me down into agreement.

"I'm going to have to get my stuff from my room."

"Oh, that's okay. I can wait. Should I come with you?"

I shrugged. "It's up to you." She answered by following me to retrieve my things.

I had to return the key to my room to Shinigami-sama so Maka and I headed straight to the Death Room after I packed up.

I handed the screw to the chairman, "Lord Death, thank you for letting me stay in the-"

"MAKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Out of the blue, a man in a black unbuttoned suit with a shirt the color of Maka's irises and a tie that was similar to a cross came screaming as his midlength, blood-red hair flew behind his head; he sped at a break neck pace toward us. "PAPA MISSED HIS LITTLE ANGEL!"

"MAKA CHOP!"

The next thing I knew, the man was on the ground with a rectangular indentation in his skull; Maka had somehow conjured up a book to do such a task.

"Your dad...?" I questioned. She nodded. "And _he's_ the deathscythe...?" She answered in the same manner. "I've lost my high respect for this man..."

Shinigami-sama interrupted our distraction. "Anywho, Mr. Eater, have you found a place to live?"

Maka responded for me, "yes, Lord Death! He's coming to live with me!"

The deathscythe had awoken from his KO'd state and grabbed Maka's ankles. "NO! I WILL NOT ALLOW MY LITTLE GIRL TO LET A BOY LIVE WITH HER! NO, NO, NO! PAPA LOVES HIS MAKA!" Alright,scratch what I said a moment ago...I didn't lose just my high respect for him...I lost _all_ of my respect for him.

"MAKA CHOP!" This time, he was out for good...hopefully.

"So you have an extra room for him?" The Death God said.

"Yes, I do." Maka retorted in a saluting manner. "I didn't really know what to do with it, and he is my partner so I think that it's pretty reasonable. Plus, I don't want him staying in the guest rooms for too long. As you said yourself, Shinigami-sama, they aren't the best living quarters."

Maka's father whined on the ground, "You could've let me stay instead of that brat right there!"

"Excuse me? I'm a brat? You don't even know me! What the hell!" He was getting on my nerves now. It was clear that he got on Maka's nerves too.

"Papa, I don't want you to live with me. That's why Soul's living with me." She was evidently saying this to irk him. I liked her thinking. "He's my _partner_."

"OH DON'T TELL ME THIS PUNK IS YOUR BOYFRIEND?" Spirit clung to the collar of my shirt. "LAY ONE FINGER ON MAKA AND I WILL SHRED YOU TO PIECES, YOU JACKASS!"

That was it. "OI! SHE NEVER SAID THAT, DUMBASS! LEARN TO LISTEN, DON'T ASSUME!" I swear, if he didn't get off, I was going to punch him.

"SHINIGAMI CHOP!" The Death God's hand practically split the man's cranium. He spilled liquid the same hue as his locks. "That's enough out of you." Clapping his hands together, he got back on subject, "Alrighty! Then it's settled! Soul, you will be rooming with Maka! Good, good! Well, thank you for returning the key! Off you go, then!"

Maka and I both bowed simultaneously, "Thank you, Shinigami-sama!"

We exited the room and soon the building while I carried my bags in silent glee. "Oh yea, Maka, wait here. I need to go get something."

"Uhm, alright then, hurry though!"

I ran around back to where the parking lot was. There it was- my motorcycle. I ignited the engine and listened to the machine roar to life. I drove it up to where Maka was waiting and enjoyed the awed expression plastered onto her face.

"You never said you could ride one of these!" She ran her hand on the sleek metal frame of the orange and yellow beauty.

I chuckled. "You never asked." She stood there for another moment admiring the bike. "Well? Hop on and hold on tight!" The girl took her place behind me on the contraption but seemed a little confused once she was there. "What's the matter?"

"What exactly am I supposed to be holding on to?" Even when she's baffled she's adorable-_ STOP THINKING THAT!_ I yelled through my thoughts.

"Me, duh." She gave me a nasty look as if to say, _don't be a wise-ass_, but she wrapped her arms around my waist and I drove off instantly and quite fast.

"Hey, Big Dummy! I'm the one who knows where we live, remember?" With a bonk to the head, she tagged on, "and slow down! We'll get into an accident!"

"Calling me names already? Fine then, Tiny Tits, where're off to?" I felt the light wrap around the waist turn into a violent death trap that would tear my upper body off of my lower. "UAHH! Damn, not cool! I'm the driver!" I screeched in pain.

"And I'm the navigator..." Her voice was soaked in a murderer's tone. "If it weren't for the fact that we'd _both_ die, I would've Maka Chopped you at the moment you said that." _Damn, am I glad I chose to_ _drive._ I sighed in relief in my head.

We flew through the streets as she directed where to go. Her bear hug around me loosened and went back to her petite hold. I felt her rest her head between my shoulder blades which caused me to slightly blush.

"Hold on! Stop! The complex is right there!" We sped by an awkwardly shaped building of a variety of colors as Maka pointed her index back at it.

I U-turned and stopped in front of the establishment. "Oh, this is it? Cool." I shut off the bike and kicked the stand down. I helped her off and slid to the ground myself. As I made my way to the entrance, I noticed my soon-to-be roommate wasn't at my side. She was standing there blankly staring at me when I looked back for her. "Well, you coming?"

Snapping out of her daze the words that were spilled from her mouth were, "oh yea, sorry." She scurried over and opened the door. We climbed a flight of stairs and went down through a carpeted hallway to the very end. Heeding a door at our right, Maka fumbled with her keys and inserted it into the lock. She turned it to the right and revealed the living room and kitchen of her apartment. "Well, here it is."

I looked around. It was a decent place as she said and it was incredibly clean. "I like it." A meow caught my attention so I looked to the ground to see a violet-black cat wearing a witch's hat. _So this must be Blair._

Maka picked the feline up and huffed a cute laugh. "Good! Then I'll start dinner!" She set Blair down and disappeared behind a counter only to come back out tying on a pink frilly apron. "Is there anything you'd like in particular?"

I maintained wide-eyed at her, gaping at the dainty figure displayed, and before I knew it, I had to battle to keep my face from becoming pink again. I stuttered, "Uh, no. N-not really. Cook whatever, it's cool with me." To flee the nervous feeling, I changed the subject, "So, uhm, where should I set down my things?"

Her eyes widened. "Oh, I'm sorry! I totally forgot you still had your bags!" She motioned for me to follow her. "Is two bags really all you have?" I bowed my head affirmatively and so she opened the bedroom door in front of us. "Uhm, there's a mattress I keep in storage, so I could just let you have that. I'll get you a bedframe of your own so-"

"No, that's okay. I'll go out to get a frame myself." She was already taking me in, I don't want to impose any further. I turned to look at her, but Maka wasn't there. "Maka?"

Olive Eyes came back with a bed frame. "I have an extra one. My dad bought it thinking I was gonna let him live with me." She handed me the clanking metal. "Here, I'll go get the mattress."

"Oh, I got it. Just show me where you keep it and I'll bring it in myself." She looked at her watch as if to check how much time she'll have to prepare dinner but she also seemed like she wanted to help. I could tell Maka was just about to argue but her face then softened.

"Okay. It's this way." I was led to a closet where a full-size had managed to just barely fit. "Uhm, you might have trouble pulling it out. I'll help push it from inside the closet." Her petite build was able to squeeze through what little space the wall and the bed offered. I felt a force on the cushion and heaved to assist the laboring girl. We got the pallet out in seconds and I took the rest of the job on. I thanked her and went off to assemble the frame; afterward, I set the futon up on top. After setting the bed, I began to unpack my bags.

It was about 45 minutes after my roommate had left me to my business when I heard a knock on my door. "Come in." The door was creaked ajar.

"Soul? Dinner's ready." She peeked in and stare agape at the room. "Oh, you're settled in already? That's good!" She stood at the doorway and smiled. The way the light from the kitchen hit her, it looked like a heavenly glow; she appeared almost angelic. "Oh, you still need bedsheets and a pillow. I'll get those for you." Her delicate legs sent her skipping away to get the cloth; she immediately appeared directly in front of me in matter of seconds with the linens. "Here you go! You can set that after we eat! Come on, I made beef stew. I hope you like it." An arm was stretched out towards me again to pick me up off the ground. A smile and gently narrowed forest eyes greeted my gaze. Our hands touched and I was brought to my feet. Without breaking our locked stare, I saw her creamy cheeks turn to a very subtle rose hue and she spoke, "I-I like your eyes."

"T-thanks..." _Damn, I'm losing my composure! This is uncool. I gotta get a hold of myself!_ " I like your eyes, too." _That's the best you can do? IDIOT! I'm an idiot!_ She also thanked me and her face obviously flushed deeper. "Well, let's go eat that stew. I'm starving!"

"That was delicious. Thanks." I gratefully remarked.

"No problem. I'm glad you liked it." She appeared quite pleased with my reaction. After that, she went off to her room and reappeared only wrapped in a towel. I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sight of such a seductive thing. "Oh, I'm just gonna shower. Go ahead and watch T.V. if you'd like. Or you can go back to your room and tidy up. There's really not much to do in here."

I managed to choke out, "It's fine, thanks." Her draped body stalked off to the bathroom and I went off to my cubicle. I fixed my sheets and straightened things up. Sighing, I sprawled across my new bed and breathed in the clean linens. "I'm so glad I left England." Something caught my eye as I scanned my room confirming that everything was to my liking; it was mom's book. "Oh, well I guess I should read through it." As I was just about to unbuckle the lock to the diary, Maka lightly tapped on my door. "May I come in?"

"Sure."

She opened the door in a full set of pajamas and wet sandy blonde locks that dripped on her shoulders. "So, you settled alright in here?" I scooted over as Maka walked to my bed to sit. I saw her pupils dart to the journal in my hand. "Oh? What's that? You keep a journal?"

My cheeks flushed out of embarrassment of the misunderstanding. "Ahh, no. It's not mine. It's...it's my mother's." Hold on, that sounds a little more awkward.

She seemed a tad appalled at this. "You have your mom's diary?"

"N-no! It's not like that! She packed it in my bag before I-" No, wait, I can't tell her why I'm here. Or can I?

"Before you...?" Maka prompted.

I sighed. "It's nothing. Never mind that. My mom just gave this to me. End of story. Got it?"

She pouted. "But is that _really_ all there is to it?"

"It's nothing, okay?"

"Whatever. Well, get to sleep soon. We have school tomorrow." The irritated girl left the room for me to ponder. She let the door somewhat slam shut to signal her irked state.

"Sorry, I just can't tell you why I'm here...or you'd know who I really am." My hands brought the notebook to my eyes and I began to read.

It was about midnight when I finished mom's guide. "Mom wrote a lot...that took me about three hours to finish." I decided to get a glass of water so I left the book on my bed and departed the room. To my surprise, a slumbering Maka with a novel opened and resting on her chest and a curled up Blair on her lap was on the couch. "Hey, Maka," I called. She didn't even stir, so I walked over and nudged her. "Oi, go to your room and sleep there, not on the couch."

She yawned and rubbed her eyes, stretching her right arm like a cat. Blair woke up as well but ran off frightened by my sudden appearance. "Oh, I didn't even realize I fell asleep..." Her hands found her book and shut it. "Thanks for waking me, but why are you still awake?"

"I was reading that journal..."

She relived her chagrin from a couple hours before, "the one you won't tell me about?" Her glare nearly pierced through me so I brought myself to the kitchen with my lazy gait to get the water that I needed. I came back with the glass filled to the brim and sat down across from her then took a sip.

"Do you honestly want to know why she gave me that journal?"

"Yes, but I'll understand if you don't wanna tell me. You don't have to, really."

I considered her offer, but declined it. "You can keep a secret, right?"

"You're going to tell me?" I can sense the fervor emitting from her. So I nodded, "then yes, I can keep a secret!"

"Okay...don't go crazy after I tell you. And don't treat me any different either." She swore with a bow of her chin and so I spilled the beans to her. "I'm Soul Evans."

It felt like the world stopped the way she sat like a stone and just gazed at me. One minute passed, then the next. I thought she was gonna stay like that forever. _Awh man, why'd I tell her...? This was a bad ide-_ "Evans? So that's why..."

I was nervous again. What was she thinking? "That's why what...?"

She peered at me reassuringly, "that's why you're so good at the piano! You're part of the famous Evans'Family of Musicians!" _She thought I was good! No one ever complimented on my playing...it was always about Wes. But her...she actually gave me the first positive commentary I've ever received from someone other than Mom._ "You're still Soul Eater to me in the public," She smirked. "But I think I'll call you 'Evans'at home."

"Hey! No! That's not cool! I ran away from my family so that I could get rid of that name!" Actually...I think I'm okay with her calling me that.

"You ran away?" Her playful attitude dissipated.

"Yea, my dad...he was too much. I hate him."

"I guess we're one in the same there. I hate my dad, too. He did nothing but flirt with other women while he was still married to my mom. I swear, them getting divorced is the best memory I have of them together!" _We're one in the same..._

I snickered. "Really? You're pretty cool, you know that?"

She gave me a goofy grin and I showed my shark-toothy crooked one. "Thanks, you're pretty cool yourself." She touched my cheek. Her palms were so soft... "Well, I'm off to my room. Turn out the lights when you're done out here. Goodnight...Evans." I watched her as she bounced to her door and disappeared behind it.

"Goodnight." This time, I made no attempt to stop the blushing.


	5. Chapter 5

SE: A Tainted Soul, A Pure Promise

Chapter 5: An Odd Bunch

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><p>"<em>Hi, I'm Crona."<em>

…_That's when I heard Maka's blood-curdling scream and felt blood pooling around my facedown body. I was slashed in the chest._

* * *

><p>"Soul! Get up! It's time for school!" I could hear Maka screaming from the kitchen while the smells of bacon and eggs found their way into my bedroom.<p>

I groaned and rolled over. "I don't wanna go…" I mumbled to myself. I sounded like a kindergartner defying his mother's calls.

"Soul…" Maka leaned at my doorway, which she had managed to open without it making a creak. "GET UP!"

"Get outta here! Can't you see I'm sleeping, Tiny Tits?" I tugged the blanket over my snow white hair and thought twice about what I'd just said. I could feel furious eyes burning through the comforter that didn't work well as a shield against a fist, a foot, or maybe a cooking pan…

The sheets were pulled from my head and I heard her chant, "Makaaaaaaaaa…" _What was she up to? And why was she saying her name? Hold on, was she doing what I think she was doing…? _"CHOP!" At that very moment, an unknown object had bashed my skull—VERY hard…

"OW! What the hell was that?" While I stared at her in bewilderment, she stood confidently in her pajamas and wore the apron from last night at my bed side. One hand was on her hip, the other holding a book. "You hit me…WITH A FREAKING BOOK?"

She looked away disgruntled. "That's what you get for ignoring my wake-up call…and calling me 'Tiny Tits'! Now get your lazy ass outta bed and dress yourself!" She stomped away and slammed my door shut as I rubbed the pain-inflicted area on my skull.

"Damn, I can't even enjoy the sight of her in that cute little smock early in the morning with her raging so hard…" I fell off of my bed and sighed when my feet hit the floor, "this is so uncool, dammit." Leaving my room, I found the linen closet and grabbed a towel; I walked to the bathroom to take a quick shower. When I finished, I wrapped myself with the towel waist-down and left the humid room.

I took a seat at the dining table where two plates were set; they were filled with scrambled eggs, bacon strips and some toast. Maka had just removed the apron she had on while cooking and stopped to stare at me. "Wh-…?"

"What?" I stabbed a chunk of the egg and stuffed it into my mouth to chew. I didn't bother looking up at her.

"W-why are you just…in a t-towel?" She stuttered out. I glanced at her through my bangs and saw her trying not to turn red. "Go put some cloths on!"

"Quit nagging me." I finished off the last of the egg and munched on the bacon. "Lemme eat in peace."

"B-but you're only in a towel!"

"And you're in your pajamas. We're both not quite decently dressed here, so deal with it." The last few strips of bacon entered my hungry lips for my jagged teeth to chomp on them until they were swallow-able. I saw that this comment peeved her.

"Well, I'm not half naked like you are!" She was still flushed and she hasn't touched her food while I had just finished everything but the toast.

"Again, deal with it. And eat up before you run out of time. _You_ still have to get changed, too." Jamming the bread into my jaws, I shoved back my chair and went off to my room. Unfortunately, my towel got caught on the leg of the chair, which began to reveal my nude body. "OH SHIT!" Before anything too explicit could display itself, I grabbed the towel and turned to rewind it onto me. Embarrassed, I bustled to my room to cloth myself.

"And _that_ is _exactly_ what I feared would happen…" Maka remarked, red-faced of course, before I shut my door.

"Good morning, Maka and Soul!" Marie-sensei greeted us as we passed through the doorway.

"Good morning, Ms. Marie!" Cheerfully, Maka returned the greeting and smiled.

I just huffed and lazily spoke to my sensei, "Morning." My partner elbowed my rib. "Ouch! What?" I was clearly displeased from her forcing me to drive us to the Academy so early.

"Don't be so rude!" She flicked my forehead causing me to wince.

I growled, "there you go, being all bossy again, like at breakfast! What the hell is your deal, Maka?" I jabbed my finger at her nose. "Jeez, what am I? Your damn husband?"

Smoke came out of her ears and she reddened, because of anger and something I couldn't quite decipher. "Shut up!" The insane blush on her cheeks made her appear even cuter, if that was possible. _What am I thinking? Snap out of it, Soul, you're being lame!_ I watched her march off to a seat next to the girl from yesterday that had been hysterically laughing at the OCD guy, Kid, and the other girl, Liz. She started a conversation with them; the subject was that of a mystery to me. I found myself a seat in the same row as they were in and planted down firmly to catch up on some sleep Maka had stolen from me this morning. Just as I was about to shut my eyes, an obnoxious screech slashed my ears.

"YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOO! THE GREAT BLACKSTAR HAS ARRIVED! NOW EVERYONE, BOW DOWN TO INDULGDE IN MY GLORY!" It was that annoying blue-haired kid from the day before as well, followed by the tall, large breasted meek girl with the extensive, silky, charcoal-colored hair pulled back into a ponytail.

Tsubaki, I think that's what her name was, tried to reason with the airheaded boy, "Blackstar, isn't a little too early to be screaming your head off like that?"

"IT'S NEVER TOO EARLY FOR A GOD LIKE ME TO SHINE HIS MAGNIFISANCE! HYAHAHAHA!" he jumped up into the air and clapped his feet together. I just realized…they looked like…_ninjas._

_I guess they take the ninja assassins'special training then… _I shut my eyes once more and threw my feet up onto the desk. I sighed and instantly dozed off for a couple of minutes, and then I felt someone standing over me. "Who is it? What do you want?" I said without opening my eyelids.

"I am the great Blackstar! It seems like you've gotten quite popular around here! Looks like I'll have to teach you that I'm the Big Star in this place!"

_I can't believe it! I'm_ _**popular**__?_ _What the hell! I've been here for one freaking day! ONE! This school is impossible… _"Oh? Do you even know my name?" I showed one crimson eye to the boy. His emerald eyes were full of way too much pride.

"Uh…oh, yea! You're Soul Eater!" He grinned wide in triumph.

"Congratulations. You know my name. Now go away." Once again, I shielded my eyes with their lids and lied back.

"Hey! Don't be so cold to your god! I'm Blackstar, but of course, you should already know me by now!"

"Oh trust me; by the way you yell out your name to the world, even an ant would know who you were." He snickered, causing me to do the same. I looked at him and got up from my leaning to offer out my hand for a shake. Blackstar took it without question and slapped a goofy grin on his face.

"The name's Soul Eater; but of course, _you_ should know me, too. Well, according to what you've told me." I pulled one corner of my lip up as a friendly expression and let the hand of the egoistic boy go.

The girl that was with him gently smiled at me; she was easy on the eyes and I could tell that she was willing to compromise without argue.

"Tsubaki! Hey! Sorry, I didn't come up to you yesterday! I didn't even bother looking up from my damn book!" Maka came over to embrace the ninja girl. She ruffled the hair of the 'Big Star'and turned it into a hug. "Hey, Blackstar. I didn't say hi to you either."

"HOW COULD YOU FORGET ABOUT YOUR GREAT GOD?" He was genuinely astonished that she didn't greet him. "There should be a penalty for this! Kiss my feet and bow down to me!"

"Psh! No way!" Maka let him out of her hold and pulled his ear. "You're a good guy, but you're not great enough for me to worship you." She mockingly stuck her tongue out at him and released his earlobe. The girl who had been boiling with anger at me only moments before turned to me as happy-go-lucky as can be and asked, "so you've met Blackstar and Tsubaki?" _…the hell? Wasn't she just mad at me?_

I nodded. The trio she was speaking to a couple seconds ago sauntered over. The bubbly girl exaggerated a wave at me. "Hewwooooo!" She sounded like a little kid. "My name is Patty! What's _yours_?" The childish teen giggled as she said this, so I guess she was normally this strange.

"Soul Eater. Nice to meet you."

"Hello, Soul. I'm Death The Kid, but go ahead and call me Kid." He stopped and looked at the way my hair messily parted to one side. "Uahh…y-your hair…ngh… it's ASYMMETRICAL!" He blubbered and pulled out a hair comb from who knows where; Kid charged at me and attempted to brush my hair in a "symmetrical" manner. The taller girl yanked him off.

"Sorry, he has OCD. I'm Liz, by the way. Liz Thompson. It's a pleasure to meet you." We firmly shook hands and released our grip.

"It's alright. So all of you are Maka's friends?" I asked. Everyone nodded, except for Patty; she fell over and came back up with an origami giraffe, which baffled me greatly. "I'm surprised a bookworm like her would have so many—"

"MAKA CHOP!"

"Jeez! I was kidding! Take a joke will ya? Really, you just had to pull the book on me again? I had to wake up from that you know…that wasn't cool at all." I remained facedown on the table after the book-to-noggin attack.

"Yea? Well I'll be putting you to sleep with a Maka Chop, too!" She growled. The book disappeared into its unknown compartment on her person and she huffed. "Anyway, yes these are my friends. And now they're yours, too." I looked at her puzzled. Her fury toward me dissolved into thin air and her stone look turned to butter. She warmly smiled. _How did she let it go that fast? Like nothing even happened?_ "You big dummy. Of course they are!"

I shut my eyes and smiled without showing my teeth. "Cool." I reopened them to catch her gaze, "you know, you're a bipolar, small titted bookwor—"

"MAKA CHOP!"

It was the third period and I was in Sid-sensei's Algebra I class. I saw that Liz had him too. "Hey! Uh, Liz was it?" Catching her attention, she came over to where I stood so that we could find seats next to each other to talk.

"Yea! Hey, Soul! So you have Sid-sensei, too? Awesome!" A smile formed across her cheeks and spoke again, "so, why don't you tell me about yourself? You're knew here and people know who you are, even though they know nothing about you. You've become quite popular in just one day, really." _So Blackstar wasn't lying…_

"Oh yea. I didn't even know people knew me. I was pretty sure that I was blending in well…" Scratching my head out of both cluelessness and irritation from popularity, Liz laughed.

"Well, gossip goes around. Girls think you're cute. I hear someone started a 'Soul Eater Fan Club'already. They're full of fangirls, surprise, surprise."

"Are you kidding me? That's stupid. They don't know one thing about me, except for the obvious things like my name and how I look." A vein pulsed in my forehead.

Liz changed the subject at the sight of how ticked I was to hear the rumor. "So what kinda music you like?"

"Well, I'm a big fan of jazz. What about you?" I was also curious to know her music interests.

"No way! Me too! But it's not really unexpected from someone like me; I'm from Brooklyn!" She exclaimed. "So where are you from?"

"Uhm, England." Liz stared at me in awe. I didn't like the way she stared at me so I added, "so what brought you to Nevada?"

"You're from England? Why don't you have an accent? Shouldn't you have one? I mean you just got to America from there, didn't you?" She had completely ignored my question and saw a little irritation in my body language. "Oh, yea. Kid brought me and Patty here. We were orphans and grew up on the street. When we were still there, we were known as the 'Brooklyn Devils'. Then we met Kid for the first time and tried to mug him, but after that we got attacked by some thugs and Kid came to our rescue. So here we are." I watched her expression as she reminisced of the event of that day. "Now tell me, what brought you here all the way from England? There's gotta be a good reason you'd come to this little place in the desert!"

I thought about what to say. No way will I let anyone else get in on my secret. "Well uhm, I came here so that I could go to this school." It was kinda true…well not really. But neither Liz, nor the rest of the gang besides Maka can know. "So yea, end of story."

She obviously sensed the awkwardness of the long-story-short which ended the conversation just in time for Sid-sensei to start the lesson. "Alright then, class, the bell has rung, so the lesson is in session. Now pull out your packets from winter break." As everyone took out the assignment, Liz and I stayed put where we were. I clearly had an excuse as to why I didn't move, but Liz has been here a while, hasn't she? "Mr. Soul Eater, I see that you're a new name on my list. Come down here so I can give you the packet and I'll give you a week to complete it."

I moved to ground level and received the papers from him. This thing had to be at least 15 pages! _I can't focus on something that's uncool like this, so how was I supposed to finish all of it? _"Thanks, sensei." I made my way back to the seat and melted two gossiping girls as I brushed by. "For goodness sake…" Grumbling to myself, I planted myself down once more. Chin in palm, I turned my attention to Sid-sensei's lesson, but soon nodded off. When the bell finally rang, I had at last felt well rested and was awake—for the most part—for the rest of the school day. I discovered that the only academic classes I shared with Maka were homeroom and P.E. _Wait, why am I keeping tabs on Maka?_ I let the other friends I made come to mind. We all shared the same homeroom; Liz and I shared Algebra I and Earth Science with one another, Patty, Tsubaki, and Blackstar all had P.E. with me, and Kid and I had no other classes together.

"Asha-sensei, what else would you like me to do?" Eighth period was coming to a close and I had just finished setting up the stealth course for tomorrow's lessons.

She gave off a discrete vibe and sang a voice that was a tad bit creepy. "That's enough for today. Why don't you go and gather your things? You can take a rest and sit down until the release bell." I did as she had suggested and found myself leaning on a wall just staring at my shoes. Then my eyes went back to Ms. Asha. She was a caramel skinned woman with dark violet eyes that were almost black, which matched her short single-ponytailed hair; Asha-sensei wore dark a dark poncho that stopped just below her chest with a large loose collar that covered her mouth. Her shirt was cropped and showed her lean, muscular stomach. The attire on her lower body was that of plum spandex shorts underneath an ebony skirt that had a slit to reveal most of her right side of the spandex. Her legs had wraps around them and the feet she stood with were dressed in ninja shoes. She was the stealth teacher and was most-likely Blackstar and Tsubaki's special-training tutor.

_BRRRR-ING! _School was let out for today and I said my farewell to my sensei. I met up with Maka at the bottom of the stairs that led to the front door. "Hey, Maka. Let me just go bring the bike around." Like yesterday, I went round back and ignited the engine. As I drove back up to where Maka awaited my return, I saw what was evidently the 'Soul Eater Fan Club', swoon over the sight of me riding the cruiser. I disappointedly shook my head and halted at the stairs to let Maka hop on. Those fans glared at my partner with envious eyes but she spit at them, metaphorically of course, to show she didn't give a crap about their stupid stares. Besides, there wasn't much to be jealous of; we're _just_ roommates, right?

At home, Maka asked if I could cook dinner. "But I never learned how. Everything was cooked for me, remember?"

She gave me an exhausted, pouty look. "Oh, Soul. What will I do with you? You'll starve if I leave you home all alone." Maka stretched out her back and sighed, "alright, I'll show you how. First, you gotta put the apron on." She went to retrieve the apron and tossed it to me.

"WHAT? I-I am _not_ wearing this!" I dropped it to the ground and took out a frying pan to set on the stove as I turned it on and let it heat. "Besides, cooking doesn't seem too hard." I left the handle turned outward and accidently smacked it down; it dropped on my toe and I yelped, only to lean my hand onto the now hot stove. I screamed once again and examined the damage; I was burned—badly. It was red and stinging, and now it was beginning to blister.

Maka turned the burner off and grabbed my wrist to run my injured palm under cold water, "YOU IDIOT!" The chilled feeling of the running sink made the stinging feel a lot less painful. Genuine concern filled her olive irises. "Look! Now your hand is all burned! I'll go get the first aid kit; you just keep your hand under that water." The frantic girl went to get the supplies.

"Man, this isn't cool." Maka came back with a medium-sized box and set it on the dining table to open it and reveal a 'squeeze-to-activate' ice pack, gauze, bandages, band-aids, triple antibiotic ointment, a little bottle of hydrogen peroxide and other medical things you might need in a first aid kit. She took the bottle of peroxide and a cottonball.

"Shut off the sink and give me your hand." I did as she told me then extended my hand to her. "This might sting a bit. Sorry about that." I watched her as she let some peroxide spill into the cotton that she dabbed my wound. I winced with each touch. After that, she let it dry off a little and took out the antibiotics cream. A Q-tip was taken out of the kit and took a pea-sized amount of the ointment to rub on the burn. That didn't hurt as much and was somewhat soothing. A sheet of gauze was taken out next and placed onto the cleaned burn; she wrapped it in bandages and threw away the cotton and Q-tip. The rest of the kit was packed up and stored back under the bathroom sink. When she came back, she found me still standing where she left me blankly staring at my patched-up hand. Standing in front of me, she held the hand that had just been bandaged and looked into my crimson eyes. "You're such an idiot… Soul Eater Evans." _She called me by both my pseudonym and real name…?_ I could see a troubled and angered look in her olive tinted pupils and apologized to her. "It's okay. I'm just glad that it isn't too bad. I guess you'll just have to watch me cook now." I nodded in agreement stood at her side as she prepared the meal, watching what she did to keep herself safe from burns and cuts. I noticed that she wore oven mitts when handling a hot panhandle. _She called me 'Soul Eater Evans'…but there was something in her tone that sounded…I can't put my finger on it…_

_She sounded like she was begging me to not get hurt…in a way a girl would if I were her boyfriend or someone who meant a lot to her… _

When she finished cooking, I helped set out our plates and we ate. "So what academic classes do you have?"

"Marie-sensei for homeroom during first period, I'm a T.A. for Dr. Stein second, three-four I have Stein again for Honors Biology, five-six I have Chiri-sensei for Honors World Geography II, seventh period I have Nygus-sensei in P.E. with you, and for eighth period I have Sid-sensei for Honors Algebra II/Trig. It's such a weird schedule." As she listed all her classes they made me think to myself, _wow she's a nerd!_ "So? What about you? What classes do you have?"

I listed my classes and she nodded. Some of the dinner she made hung off of her lip and I couldn't help but to think she was adorable. _I think that's it. I can't believe it, but I think I may have a crush on Maka the way those fangirls have a crush on me…_

_I'm so uncool…_


	6. Chapter 6

SE: A Tainted Soul, A Pure Promise

Chapter 6: Meet The Nurse

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><p>"<em>Hi, I'm Crona."<em>

_...That's when I heard Maka's blood-curdling scream and felt blood pooling around my facedown body. I was slashed in the chest._

* * *

><p>Today was Wednesday which meant we had combatant classes. It also meant that I've been living here in Death City for exactly a week now; I've been living exactly a week without seeing my mother, or even talking to her. I didn't want to feel gloomy so I thought of the courses for the day. This time, Maka and I had every single class together, which made me pretty giddy inside even though I refused to let it show. Apparently, all my emotions had just barely slipped out, but that was enough to catch my partner's attention.<p>

"Hey, Soul? You alright? One second you looked all sad and then the next you looked like you were anxious for something good. Now you're like...well like normal. What was on your mind?" Maka shone her curious olive eyes into the ruby ones that belonged to me.

I frowned a little at the thought of my mother but felt slightly embarrassed at the thought of becoming avid because of the day ahead. "Oh, it's nothing..." I looked away and shrugged her off.

"There! You just did it again! You just looked like something upset you and then you just changed your expression to an excited one! What's up with you?"

"I'm fine, it's nothing. Just forget it." I heard her mumble something like 'that's not what your..._something_... is saying...'I couldn't quite catch that _something_ she said."What's that?"

She shut her eyes and turned her head away from mine, crossing her arms over her chest. "Ohh, it's nothing. Just forget it!" Obviously agitated, she mocked what I said and then breathed out, which seemed to make her surrender her peeved feelings. How does she do that? She's a girl! She should hold a grudge for at least a couple minutes! "So anyways, let's hurry to Marie-sensei so we're not late!" Maka took me by the left wrist, not the hand because it was burned, and dragged me along like she was my mother.

"Can we slow down? The first bell hasn't even rung yet!" I had a hint of a growl in my throat. "I mean really, what's the rush?"

She snorted at me and continued what she was doing. Realizing that I couldn't do anything else, I gave into her tug and kept pace with her until we reached the sensei's room.

As we walked through the doorway, Ms. Marie smiled to us, "good morning, you two! You're quite early." Maka nodded and still held my wrist. "Oh, you two seem to be getting close! Wait, Soul what happened to you?"

I allowed myself to intercede, "This is what I get for living with her. Oh yea, I got burned from the stove because she made me cook." I spoke in a jokingly displeased tone; Maka nearly fractured my appendage that she had a grip on until I said that I was just messing with her. "Calm down. Be more level-headed like me."

She released her grasp and retorted, "ahh, shut up! You're not that great..." the girl huffed. "And that was your fault! Don't try to pin your injury on me!" Marie-sensei giggled at us. "What's so funny, sensei?"

"You two quarrel like an old married couple." Both mine and Maka's cheeks reddened madly at her comment. "Ahh, I wish I could get married. But I'm just so busy! After becoming a deathscythe, I was supposed to retire and get settled with a man I loved and make a family but I kept getting more and more work piled on me so here I still am!" She whined with her hand to her forehead just as a drama queen would. "Oops! Heehee, I apologize! I'm boring you with this story, aren't I? Well, just go ahead and get to your seats!" We agreed and climbed past a couple of rows and sat in the fourth row. Maka was at my right and pulled out her book to read; she seemed to just conjure that thing up out of oblivion. While she did that, I took the time to doze off a bit. Probably five minutes at out seats, the first warning bell rang. _Jeez, why do we have to be so early?_

I could hear students beginning to flow into the room while my eyes were still shut. While listening to the scholars utilize their time before the bell to socialize, I figured that the ruckus would make it impossible for me to catnap any longer. I revealed my crimson lookers and turned my attention to my right where Maka was. I was shocked to see she was focused on me and even leaning forward somewhat. She was taken aback by my sudden wake.

Her eyes darted to my chest then back to meet my gaze and kept doing that as she spoke, "oh, s-sorry! I was just uhm...it's nothing. Sorry, I'm being super creepy." Maka swirled back forward but slightly angled to where I couldn't see her face.

Why'd she keep looking down at my chest? What? Was there something on my shirt or something? "Whatever then," I breathed. The bell then rang and class was to begin.

"Ahh, freaking close combat was a pain in the ass!" I complained rubbing my shoulder. Maka and I were on our way to the cafeteria. "Man, I'll be so sore in the morning..."

My partner seemed completely fine, though we did the same exercises against Sid-sensei. "Well, hey! At least we got to fire at the targets today! That was pretty fun!" I had to agree with her. "Was that your first time shooting a gun?"

"Uh, yea. It was kind of a rush. I couldn't hit the stupid target though. I kept getting next to it." I scratched the back of my head. We reached the lunch room and got in line beside each other. "How the hell did you get a bull's eye every time?"

"Well, beginner's luck, I guess. I just started this class this semester." I looked at the entrees displayed before us. The school had some pretty fancy eats here. Maka grabbed a chicken salad; it looked like it came from this high class restaurant I went to when I was a small boy. The dish that I grabbed consisted of smoked salmon with blue cheese on top. We paid for the lunch and found our seats. "So you just moved here a week ago, right?"

"Yup," I answered. She gave me a small giggle and forked the leaves of the salad she had set out in front of her. "What're you laughing for?"

"Well, I just remembered how I met you." Maka continued to eat a little. I did the same as I listened to her, "I met you at the supermarket. Now you live with me. I think it's kinda funny; you're like a hobo I took in."

"Wow thanks..." I chomped on my salmon and swallowed. I can't believe she remembered that...I mean, I did too, but that was my first day in Death City, so why wouldn't I remember it? ...Am I right?

"Oh, at least you're not a stinky hobo," she teased. "So...tell me, what made you want to leave anyways? Besides your dad."

"Let's talk about it at home maybe...?"

"EH? Let's talk about _what_ at home?" Just then, Blackstar and Tsubaki strolled up to where we were. "The Great Blackstar is here! You must tell all your secrets to your god!"

"Nahh. It's nothing. Forget about it." I was expecting an argument, but the 'Big Star'just took his place across from me and next to his partner to eat his lunch as if he were a beast.

Tsubaki quietly joined the conversation. "So you two live with each other?"

I nodded my head and Maka vocalized her answer, "Yea, I took this hobo into my apartment." I growled at her and she just stuck her tongue out at me.

Kid and the Thompson sisters then appeared; immediately Kid asked, "I don't mean to pry, but you seem like you have something going on between you two…? Correct me if I'm wrong." The symmetry freak chuckled when he saw Maka and I react in an embarrassed and dumbfounded way. "So you're just roommates then?"

"Yea. But she treats me like I'm her husband or something…hitting me with books to wake me up…I mean really, Maka!"

The muscle in her forehead twitched and her arms tensed. Tsubaki interrupted, "oh, she does those Maka Chops all the time! Well, to Blackstar here, anyway." She pointed at the said boy as he sat there full-bellied and picking at his teeth.

"Well, they hurt like hell."

"You got that right! Maka, you shouldn't be hitting your god! I should punish you for that! Kiss my feet and praise me, dammit!"

Unsurprisingly, a Maka Chop came down onto his skull and he saw stars as he lay there on the café floor. "I said no once already. You just _had_ to make me say it again!"

Blackstar was out for the rest of lunch and Tsubaki fanned him as his head rested on her lap. The sisters, Kid, Tsubaki, and Maka and I continued to have small talk until we were dismissed for fifth period.

"You know, Soul, we have Nygus-sensei for self-medicating and survival next period. You could learn a thing or two there." Maka nudged at me, referring to how I can't cook for myself and to my wound for trying.

"Ahh, shut up…" I grumbled.

Like Monday, we were in Dr. Stein's class in eighth period. "Alright, Soul, don't hold the scythe like that. If you go to swing, you'll hurt yourself." He got into a proper stance. "You wield it like this. See, if you keep balance throughout yourself, you won't put any unnecessary strain on any one part of your body."

"Okay, so I stand like…" I tried to mimic his posture. "This?" Dr. Stein breathed out a sigh and lit one of his cigarettes. He motioned for Maka to assist me with a nod and she came over to where I stood. Her delicate palms adjusted my arms and legs to where they should be. When she backed away to examine the results, she affirmed my position. "Wow that actually helps." The weight of the scythe felt as if it decreased, though in reality, it hadn't changed at all. All the stress on one side of my body has dissipated. The scythe wasn't that heavy, but it weighed enough to strain my muscles some.

Maka got into the same stance and confronted me. "Ready, Soul?"

I gulped, "wait, what are you doing?"

Her head hung and she sighed, "you're my partner. That means you're also my _sparring_ partner. You learned how to swing the thing around and hold it right without hurting yourself. You can spar with me now." She seemed so confident with wielding such an ancient weapon though she was just as novice about it as I was.

"Uhm, okay…I guess I can try?" I lifted the blade and swung. Maka shielded against my attack with her blade and countered with a swing herself. She slashed my left shoulder; it wasn't that deep but I could tell she held back so that she wouldn't hurt me any further. Blood spilled through the gash and I grabbed onto it. "Shit…"

Maka dropped the scythe she held and rushed over. "Soul! I'm so sorry! Dr. Stein, can I take Soul to the dispensary?" With a nod as confirmation to the request, we were off to our destination.

I hobbled down the hall using her as support, my shoulder still gushing the red liquids.

"I'm so sorry! This is all my fault! I should've never forced you to practice with me!" She was quite distressed, though she really needn't be.

"It's cool, I'm fine. I was stupid enough to try out a fight even though I don't have any idea how to use the damn scythe." I showed her my signature grin but she just grimaced.

"What do you mean 'it's fine'? Are you insane? You're bleeding like crazy and it's cuz I slashed you! I feel terrible!" Maka sulked and palmed her face with her free hand as we rounded the corner into the clinic.

"My, my, what have we here?" A woman in a lab coat with short blonde hair that braided at the front all the way down to her chest turned in her rolling chair to see the catastrophe laid before her. "A gash to the shoulder? What happened?"

"Medusa-sensei, we were sparring and well, Soul here isn't the best at the scythe so..." Maka's explanation glumly trailed off.

The nurse turned her attention to me and said, "well then, let's take a look, shall we? I'm going to need you to take off the shirt so I can see the extent of the injury." She motioned to one of the patient beds for me to sit so I did as she wanted. Medusa-sensei examined the slash-wound and got up to get the tools to patch it up. "Well, lucky you it's not that deep. Any deeper and you would've needed some stitches, possibly a couple of staples. You pulled away just in time, I presume?" She asked Maka.

"O-oh, yes I did!" My frantic partner stuttered out. The nurse nodded and went back to cleaning the injury and bandaging it. When she finished, she sighed in contentment at her work.

"So you two are planning to wield scythes, huh?" Medusa-sensei trashed all of the blood-soaked gauze. She kept eyeing Maka like she was disgusted with her, and that, for some reason, bothered me.

"Ah, yes, Medusa-sensei. It's a tradition that my family wields the scythe, you know, just in case those demons and witches come back." Maka nervously laughed and helped me with my shirt.

"I'm obviously not good at it. But Maka, you're really good." I tried to lighten the mood by complimenting her, but it just brought her down. Jeez, how the hell do I please her?

"Yea sure, I'm so good that I hurt my partner." I flicked her in the forehead the way she flicked me earlier. "Ow, what was that for?"

"For being so gloomy! Quit that, will ya?" I used a harsh tone, but soft enough to sound somewhat sympathetic and reasonable. I don't want her to be so down on herself. It makes me feel bad that she's all sulky because of me.

Her face softened and she glinted a faint smile across her lips. She spread it to me and we were in a gaze lock again. Her deep forest eyes were so...gravitating, I just couldn't take my crimsons away.

"So Maka, you said it's a tradition to wield the scythe? That must mean you're an Albarn, right? The Albarns are the only ones I know in Death City to have a whole family who uses scythes." Medusa-sensei caused Maka to break the stare, which to my surprise somewhat irked me.

"Yes, that's right. My mother is Kami and my father is...Spirit." When she said the deathscythe's name, she made it so that her hatred for him was conspicuous. "They both use the scythe and they taught me some stances when I was little. I've always wanted to use it."

I saw something flash in Medusa-sensei's eyes...it was odd and it made me pay more attention to her actions. "Ahh, so you must be quite skilled at the blade?" Her voice sounded a tad dark; it was unlike a moment ago when she sounded like any friendly staff member.

"Heehee, I guess you can say so. I pick up on the lessons pretty quickly." I could see the pride that Maka took in that. _Nerd..._

There it goes again. I stared at the nurse's eyes and saw _something_ in them...I saw something malevolent. "Say...why don't you switch your weapon now? There is a low chance that any witches will be showing up anytime soon and we already have your father and Dr. Stein here as scythe users. Heck, even Shinigami-sama uses a scythe. So why don't you stick to being a Regular? You too, Soul. Why don't both of you stick with the guns and the knives?" Are you kidding me? She was trying to convince us to stop using the scythe?

As if Maka had sensed my anger, she stared at me with confusion, fury and fear which swirled in her olive eyes. She looked at Medusa-sensei again and spoke, "no, I don't think I can do that. I take pride in the scythe and I'm sure Soul does too. We're not giving it up. I'm sorry, I think we've taken enough time from you. We'll be leaving now." I stood back up and Maka got close to me. I could feel the angst emanating from her body and felt her slightly tremble as she grabbed my hand. I followed her lead and went out with her, still glaring back at the nurse. Once we were out of the clinic and many feet away from the door, she said to me, "she's so creepy...and did you see the way she was looking at us? It was like she wanted to kill us or something." She shivered. Then she realized we were still holding hands and let go. "Oh yea, sorry."

"Nahh, it's fine." I replied coolly. As we made our way to Dr. Stein's class once more, I thought back at what just happened. _Her eyes were so full of...madness. She seemed so wicked, like a...snake._ I felt petite fingertips graze my arm. "Hmm?"

"What's wrong? What's on your mind?" Maka eyed me as if she knew what I was thinking...or at least feeling. Her fingers wrapped around the crook of my elbow and grasped firmly. The worry in her expression forced her to appear so jumbled up...

I inhaled deeply and lazily exhaled. "Don't worry about it. It's nothing." She seemed rattled some and let go of me.

She steamed off while looking away from me. "You keep saying that...but I can tell you're freaked out by that nurse the way I am..." Sighing, she added, "you may appear cool on the outside, but that's not what your..." she mumbled one last part that I didn't hear.

How did she know that I thought Medusa-sensei was creepy? Was she some kind of mind reader? No, that's stupid...it was more like she could read my emotions by looking at something...maybe that's the reason she kept looking at my chest... When I glanced at her, I caught Maka doing it again. Her focus was at my sternum. It wasn't like she was gawking at it like a guy would at large breasts, but it was more like she was looking through the surface...like she was looking inside me. "Oi, why do you keep staring at me? And more importantly, why at my chest?"

Her eyes widened a bit and she reddened. "It's nothing!" She ran ahead of me and called back, "hurry up before class ends, slowpoke!"

After the bell rang, Maka and I walked out of Dr. Stein's, side by side. We met up with our friends and chatted.

"Hehehehehe, Soul has boo-boo!" Patty poked at my bloodstained shirt I wore. She ended up jabbing my injured shoulder and I winced.

"Hey, hey! Patty, how about let's not poke that, huh?" Liz held her younger sister back as the girl laughed her brains out.

"Soul, you're...you're not symmetrical!" Kid cried out and tried to gash my other shoulder before Liz restrained him too. "Liz, release me! I must! I can't take it!" I edged away from the psychopathic OCD child.

"No you don't! Hey, Kid...KID! Look at me! He's your friend! You don't slash your friends like that!" Liz talked some sense into the insane savage. "There you go. Now apologize to Soul." He did as she told him which caused Liz to sigh in irritation, "I swear. I'm like a freaking mom!"

We all somewhat chuckled at this. Then Tsubaki asked, "so Soul, what exactly happened to your shoulder anyway?"

I huffed. "Well, this one right here," I pointed behind me at Maka with my thumb, "decided to spar with me, so when I went for an attack, she countered and hit me." Rolling out my damaged shoulder, I grunted at the sharp pain that came with it. "Ah well, it's not that bad."

"Now I have to help you change two sets of bandages..." Maka complained. Her expression changed to a less reluctant look. "Well, I think we should head home. I gotta start dinner since you can't cook yet. You're gonna have to watch until you're all healed up, you know." She inspected my bandaged appendages. "Man, everything's on your left side..." Her hands found her hips and she let her head hang.

"Alright then, let's go Mopey. See ya guys tomorrow then." I waved the group off and brought Maka to the front before going off to the parking lot to retrieve my bike. While I drove up, I got the usually lovestruck girls wide-eyed and swooning over me and then I passed by one of the staff. It was Medusa-sensei, and she was giving me that glare again... She began to make her way to where I left Maka. That nurse gave me a panicked feeling, so I sped up to get to my partner before she could. _I'm beginning to think Medusa-sensei isn't someone I should be calling sensei..._ I screeched the cruiser to a stop and somewhat rushed Maka onto it. "Get on."

Her movements were steady but when she wrapped her arms around me, I could sense that she was troubled. "Soul..." I looked back at her to see she was staring at someone behind us. "Medusa-sensei's right there...and she's watching us..." her grip tightened. "What do you think she wants from us?"

_Damn, she's so creepy!_ I looked to where the woman stood piercing us with her glare. _Snake..._ I thought. "I dunno what she could want...besides the fact that she doesn't want us using the scythe..." I let the engine roar to life and revved it. "Let's just go before she follows us or something." I zoomed away from Shibusen with the snake eyes still burning into the back of Maka's head. Is Maka the one she wanted...?

If it is, then I sure as hell won't let Medusa touch her...


	7. Chapter 7

SE: A Tainted Soul, A Pure Promise

Chapter 7: A Gift From Mom

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><p>"<em>Hi, I'm Crona."<em>

_...That's when I heard Maka's blood-curdling scream and felt blood pooling around my facedown body. I was slashed in the chest._

* * *

><p>"Maka, breakfast is ready!" I called Maka from her room while she dressed herself for school. It's been a couple of months that I've lived with her and she's taught me how to cook simple things so far. Now we swapped turns for breakfast and dinner and dish duty now that my shoulder and hand were all healed up.<p>

Maka came out of her room tying up her pigtails. "What'd you make?" Her hair tie was in her mouth and muffled her talking some; it made her sound cute, and it didn't make her look any less cute by the way she had to look up at me to make eye contact.

"Uhm, the same old. Bacon, eggs and toast." I piled the food onto our plates and set them out along with our silverware, so she took a seat and dug in.

Taking my seat as well, I began to eat. Maka smiled at me which caused me to give her a puzzled look. "You're cooking." My baffled expression deepened further. She giggled, "it's a whole lot better than when I first left you alone to prepare the food. Remember? That first time you cooked without my help, everything was a burnt crisp. You've gone a long way." She continued to eat the way she always does…meek, I should say. She doesn't stuff her face yet, she doesn't eat like a mouse. It was actually pleasant to watch her nibble on her meal.

"Thanks." I smiled as she finished off the last of her breakfast. The girl got up and rinsed her dish in the sink. While I chowed down on the rest of my meal, she walked slowly over to me with a napkin and wiped my bottom lip. I stopped chewing and stared at her blankly.

"You were drooling." A faint smile spread across her smooth lips. "Now go get dressed. We have school."

When we got to Shibusen, I parked my bike and walked round front with Maka at my side. There was Medusa…like every morning since we met her; she just stood there to glare at us. It's actually really creepy. We entered the building and found our way to Ms. Marie's to find our seats—earlier than the first bell, like Maka regularly made us do. Everything was pretty normal so far, until I was then called to the Death Room over the PA. "Eh? I wonder what they need me for…"

"Did you do something stupid? Like get into a fight?" Maka asked not looking away from her book.

"Nahh, getting into dumb fights out of random is uncool." I got up from where I was seated and jammed my fists into my jacket. "Well, I guess I'll be back."

"Yea. I'll be here."

Ms. Marie was aware of the call for me so she allowed me to depart the room. I passed under the many corridors to get to the actually door of the Death Room. Students were still coming into the school and the first bell wasn't due to ring for another ten minutes or so. I found the door the main office and entered being greeted by the guillotines once again. When I came to the clearing, I respectfully greeted Shinigami-sama and ignored the deathscythe, Spirit who stood by his side.

"Uh, you asked to see me, Lord Death?" The death god nodded while Spirit was blowing a gasket about me ignoring him, which I didn't pay much mind to.

Lord Death began to speak, "we have a package for you. There's no return address, I'm afraid, but it's a pretty large box. Spirit-kun, do you mind getting it?"

He mumbled and stomped away to get the parcel.

"What do you think it is?"

"I'm not so sure, Soul-kun. We'd like you to open it here, if you don't mind. I'm somewhat suspicious as to why there is no address to return it."

"Oh, yea, I understand. I can open it here." Spirit came back with the pack and set it in front of me.

"Here. Now open it." I scowled at the man as he did to me, and knelt down to tear some of the tape off of the box. As I pulled back the flaps of the cardboard, there was something made out of metal concealed in bubble wrap.

"Huh…? What's this?" I unwound the air-filled plastic and stared in awe at what lay before me. "A…a scythe?" It had a long, gray shaft with a red and black blade; the colors were separated by a zig-zag going down the middle. At the heel of it, there was something that represented a red eye with a black pupil; the décor was outlined in a dark gray that was nearly black with a line extending out of two places next to the eye. Next to it, there was a bar that went along the side of the blade that had three holes punched in it. Under the 'eye', there was a triangular zig-zag pattern that parted light and dark gray colors. It was absolutely beautiful. "This is amazing…" I took the weapon into my grasp and admired the framework of it; a letter dropped when I picked it up. "Oh what's this?" I carefully placed the item back and ripped open the envelope to get to the message.

**Dear Soul, you've been in Shibusen for about three months now, I suppose. It's been quite empty around the house and of course, your father still has no clue of your whereabouts. Yes, I know there is no return address. But the purpose for that is so your father will not stumble upon any letters from you and find you. Wes seems quite worried for your disappearance. I will tell him where you are in a couple of years. I don't want him to ruin the life you're building while you're away.**

**So anyway, about the scythe, I wanted to give this to you. I know how you've always admired such things. Also, I was thinking you'd want to use it in the academy. I hear they have odd fighting classes there. I hope you can use it.**

**Well, goodbye for now, love. Be careful where you are. I love you, sweetheart.**

**Love, Mom**

"Wow…Thanks, Mom…" Smiling, I reread the letter and looked back at the scythe. "Well, it's not a thing to be suspicious of. It's just a gift from my mother."

"Oh! What a sweet gesture! What did Mrs. Evans say in the letter?" I handed Shinigami-sama what my mother wrote to me and he joyously bent his body like he always does. "That's nice! I'm glad she's given it to you!"

Spirit seemed confused, "wait a minute! Evans? I thought you were 'Eater'?" He looked at me skeptically.

"The liberties of changing my name here, idiot…" I retorted coldly.

"WHAT'D YOU SAY PUNK? I SHOULD KICK YOUR ASS FOR THAT!" The deathscythe grabbed the color of my shirt again. I sighed, displeased by the situation.

"SHINIGAMI CHOP!" The man was put out of his rage and now dazed on the floor. "Spirit, we don't need you doing that, thank you."

I widened my eyes; an idea had popped into my head. "Excuse me, Shinigami-sama, do you mind calling Maka into here?"

"Sure, but what for, Soul-kun?"

"I just wanna give her something. It's really important."

"ALRIGHTY THEN!" He clapped his hands. "I'll be right on it!" The death god went behind his mirror and I heard the PA system call for Maka Albarn.

In minutes, Maka came by and acknowledged the Shinigami politely and respectfully. "Hello, Shinigami-sama. What is it that you need?" She saw that I was still here and her father on the ground. "Oh, you guys are here. He's out right? I don't feel like being smothered…"

"Yea. I have a feeling he'll be like that for a whi—" Suddenly, the blood-red headed man got up and embraced Maka yelling her name and crying; he was also blabbering on about 'Papa loving his Maka' or something like that.

"MAKA CHOP!" The man, once again, was on the ground and knocked out. "Jeez…I can't come within ten feet of him and have him not attack me…" She shook her head and then turned her focus to us. "So what are we gathering here for?"

I spoke, "I wanna give you something."

Her cheeks turned a slightly rosy tint. I really liked seeing her like that. "Oh? What is it?"

Pulling the scythe from the box, I displayed it and saw the mix of astonishment and excitement that slapped her face. "You're pretty good at using the weapon…me, not so much. And well, my mom just gave this to me…I-I was thinking you could make more use out of it than I can." What the hell! By the way that I was acting, it sounded like I was trying to ask her on a date or something…I'm just giving her a scythe.

"Y-your mom gave this to you?" I nodded in response and she plastered a wide, amazed grin on her face. She took the blade into her grasp and stared at it without changing her expression. "Soul, this is just...amazing! Thank you so much!" Out of nowhere, she carefully set the scythe down and ran over to embrace; her arms took their place around the back of my neck. I was honestly shocked and I blushed subconsciously and wrapped my arms back around her. "You're an awesome partner, you know that?"

"Thanks, you're cool yourself." I tried to keep myself composed. She was warm...her arms fit perfectly around me and the way her body molded against mine..._what am I thinking? She didn't like me the way, I'm sure. I mean, sure I had a small crush on her, but she thinks of me as just a roommate, a friend...right? _Before I knew it, the hug was over and her gaze was set on my chest again. "Seriously, why do you keep staring at my chest? It's kinda weird."

Like she always did when I asked, she blushed and broke the stare to nervously blurt out, "it's nothing!" I just sighed and shrugged. "Well, I guess we can go back to class now. C'mon Maka, let's go." I turned back to the death god and bowed my head slightly, "we'll be off now, Shinigami-sama."

"Alrighty then! See ya, see ya!" He waved. Spirit just stood by Lord Death's side and grunted, "good… the brat's outta here. He better not touch my Maka." Then suddenly, some sort of messenger came into the room.

"Lord Death! My deepest apologies for barging in like this! But there is someone outside with a sword. We're suspicious that he or she is a descendant of a witch or a demon! We need someone specialized in dealing with these creatures immediately!" The man was out of breath from blurting that out all at once.

"Oh my, this is a bit of a problem, isn't it?" Shinigami-sama didn't seem as panicked as the rest of us were. "Well then, Maka, Soul, would you mind taking care of this? It'd be a great way to test out what you're capable of since you've been practicing so hard these last couple of months," he suggested.

"I'll back you up with the weapons on me, Maka. I'll probably get in the way with the little skill I have with the scythe anyways." It was understandable that would happen. I mean, all I could do was spin the damn blade, and not well, might I add.

She had determination blazing in her eyes and confidence in the smile she gave me. "Let's see what this scythe of yours can do!" And with that, we sped down the hall with the messenger to where the supposed demon or witch was rampaging.

We halted to see an extremely thin girl…or was it a boy? Well anyway, he or she had pinkish-purple hair and was quite pale; it was also holding a black sword where at the sword's handle guard, had an accessory that appeared to be a mouth with red lips.

"Oi, Maka? You think that thing's a boy or a girl?" I asked her. I really wished to know what the hell we were going to fight before we killed it.

"I dunno. I think it's a girl, but does it really matter? We gotta get rid of it before it causes some serious damage." She took her stance and charged for the thing. "RRRAAAHHH!" I was expecting to see the girl split in half from the swing, but it stopped in her shoulder and she just stared at Maka with crazed eyes. "What the? The blade is so light and it was easy to swing, and I swung hard…but why did it stop so near the surface?"

The mysterious kid removed the blade and nonchalantly spoke, "that hurt. Why would you attack me? I can't deal with you attacking me! Ragnarok, what do I do?" She was talking to her sword. It obviously wasn't going to give her an answer—it was simply just a sword, but she acted as though it did and she giggled in a creepy fashion. "Okay, if you said that it's okay, then I'll kill her! Let's goooooo, Ragnarok!" She swung down at Maka but missed due to her wobbly manner of attacking. I shot at the lunatic but saw that the bullets didn't go too deep into her skin. "Who was that? I can't deal with gun shots! Where's it coming from?"

"What the hell? What's going on? Why can't we pierce the thing?" This pissed me off. I grabbed my knife and went straight for the enemy.

"SOUL, STOP! Don't be so hasty!" She stopped my knife with the red and black blade of the scythe. "We obviously can't penetrate her skin deeply. We gotta figure out why."

"Hey, you're thinking for once. Usually I'm the one to stop you from doing something stupid." We backed away from the loopy girl. "So what do you think is wrong with her?"

"Hehehe, it's the blood. The black blood! Kekekekeh, you can't pierce me when I'm on the black blood!" What? What was this chic going on about? "The black blood makes it harder to cut through me! You can't kill me! I can only kill you! That's the only way…" She ran toward Maka again and slashed at her; Maka's shoulder and cheek were grazed but it wasn't too severe.

"MAKA!" I shot at the attacker with my pistols; reloading the magazine was required after five more shots.

"I'm alright! It's just a scratch!" She got up and rammed for the girl again. "Who the hell are you anyway?"

The unsteady offender fought Maka off and backed her against a tree a couple hundred feet from the school. In fear for her life, I ran over and stabbed the young lady in the back which turned her attention to me. Swiftly avoiding her blade, I pulled Maka into my arms and dragged her away from the supposed witch. "I won't let you touch her!" The odd foe took a shot to the chest by my gun.

"Why do you keep doing that? I can't deal with it! I don't know how to deal with it!" She struck down on us again while I still had Maka in my grasp, so I rolled us away from the assault.

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU? AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" Maka screamed at the top of her lungs. It only caused the aggressor to chuckle.

"Hi, I'm Crona." She continued her wavering stand and said, "Medusa-sama sent me here to get you two." The insanity-driven adversary paused to think, "your names are…Maka and Soul…aren't they?"

I felt Maka stiffen as well as I did; her eyes welled up and I saw true fear spilling with each tear.

I got up while the girl was still lost in her mind. Taking the scythe from the ground, I gave a powerful swing at her. She fell to the ground only to come back up with barely a scratch.

"That's not fair. I wasn't ready! You're not supposed to attack me when I'm not ready! I can't deal with you! You have to disappear!"

It all went by so fast… Her sword pierced the air and came down in my direction…that's when I heard Maka's blood-curdling scream and felt blood pooling around my facedown body. I was slashed in the chest.

"SOOOOOOOUUUUUULLLLL!" Those familiar petite arms wrapped around me to flip me onto my back. Maka held me there and cried. "Soul…I screwed up…"

Then, the chuckle of the one who had just slit open my chest from my left shoulder down to my right hip. "You're next, Pigtails…"

I knew I couldn't trust that damn nurse…


	8. Chapter 8

SE: A Tainted Soul, A Pure Promise

Chapter 8: Interests

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><p>…<em>it made me feel faint. I was woozy and it was getting hard to stand.<em>

"_So does this mean…?"_

_Maka sweetly smiled at me. "Mhhm."_

* * *

><p>My heart beat in my ears. I could feel Maka's whole body trembling as my consciousness began to fade. She was scared and I could feel it. <em>Crona…so that's her name.<em>

"You idiot…why would you do this…?" Maka sobbed into the crook of my neck. What the hell was she doing? She needed to get outta here, now! _Dammit, I wish I could move…_

"Goodbye…pigtails." My frightened partner gasped and put her face closer to me. I could feel her lips on my neck, wet with tears and shaking. "Uaahhh? What? Who are you? AHHH!" Crona screamed and I heard a thud. _What was going on? I'm losing it…no I have to fight to stay awake…I can't lose myself now!_

Some sort of cloth that smelled of chemicals was tossed over me. Then I heard two…no three familiar voices. "Dr. Stein, will Soul be okay…?" That was definitely Maka…she sounded shaken. _Shit…I want to do something about this…_

"He took a bad strike to the chest, but he'll be fine. We must hurry though. He's bleeding a lot." That was Dr. Stein; he must've been the one to throw the cloth—which was probably his jacket—onto me.

Then the third voice was…"Makaaaaa…" Oh yea, that was definitely Spirit. I'd recognize that whine when Maka ignored him.

The next things that I heard were thuds and screaming from Crona's body. It sounded like Dr. Stein and Spirit really beat the crap out of her.

"AHHHHHHH!" Crona's cry of pain pierced my ear and pleased me. _Bitch…_ The surrounding sounds faded out and I was unconscious.

Everything was so clear…so vivid…

-_Maka was backed up by Crona and slashed by the maniac. My partner was being continuously stabbed and sliced so gruesomely; she was screaming and yelping for me but I couldn't do anything… I was trapped in something…something that held me back by the chest where the gash had been. _"CRONAAAA! GET AWAY FROM HER!"_ My screaming did nothing but add to the chaos of laughter of Crona and the shrieking of Maka. She was helpless, and I was helpless…then, another voice added to the noise all around us. It was a woman's chuckle; the sound was menacing…and it had a tinge of atrociousness that reminded me of a snake.-_

"AHHHHHH!" The next thing I felt was a hand in mine; those palms seemed recognizable. I calmed down and squeezed it. Heavily gasping for air, I tore my eyes open to see a teary-eyed Maka gripping my hand back comfortingly.

She wiped her face and sighed in relief, "Soul! You're awake!" Maka embraced me and kept me there in a tight hold. "I…I was so worried…You were fading away…I could feel you getting weaker. I thought I was gonna lose y—" She broke off. Her body heated up somewhat, probably out of embarrassment and she let me go. "How are you feeling? Should I get you a glass of water or something?" Her cheeks were flushed; I could also tell she was trying to avoid eye contact, but at the same time, she seemed to yearn for a stare-down.

"No, it's fine. I'm okay." Her posture seemed to sag after my response. "So what are you talking about? What do you mean I was 'fading'?" I was curious why she said that. She also almost said she thought she was gonna lose me…

Maka sniffled a bit. "Oh, it's nothing. Anyway, I'll come to visit you after classes are over and maybe in between if I get the chance to. The first bell will be ringing any minute so I have to go." I watched as she gathered her bag to leave, then she turned around once more and let her face come close to mine. "Soul, are my eyes red?" I shook my head no and she gave me a dainty smile. "Thanks."

I was given one last quick hug and just as she was to leave the room, I blurted aloud, "I know you were crying. So don't tell me or act like you weren't." That stopped Maka in her tracks. The first bell rang and she didn't bother looking back at me.

I got a profile view of her and could see that she tried not to frown; it also appeared that her eyebrows furrowed. "I'll see you later, okay?" She left me alone staring at the doorway where she once had been while I sat upright in my patient's bed.

What did she mean by I was 'fading away'? Or, that she could 'feel me getting weaker'? She was hiding something from me…I wonder what it is.

While I waited for the school day to end, I just kinda laid or sat around and drifted in and out of sleep. There wasn't much to do, not even any T.V. to watch. So every time the door opened, I was hoping it'd be Blackstar and Tsubaki or Kid and the sisters, but I mostly desired Maka to walk through that door and greet me with a smile. My hopes never came to be whenever the door flung ajar so it was either an injured student or Nygus-sensei; it was usually the nurse in the bandages. Speaking of the nurse, I wondered where Medusa had gone. Honestly, I was expecting to see her when I woke up just so I can glare at her, but it turned out Nygus-sensei was here in her place. _Dammit…where'd the woman go…?_ I wanna kill that snake…for sending that asylum-bound girl, Crona here to kill us and more importantly, I want to rip Medusa apart personally for trying to murder Maka…

The door creaked open and a sandy-blonde head poked in. "Soul? Are you awake?" It was who I had been longing for all day. Maka was here. When she saw me alert and brightly turning my focus to her, she grinned, "awesome! You're up! There's a little surprise for you behind me." I observed her mischievous expression as she threw the door widely agape to expose all of our friends waving hello and running over to my bedside. "We all thought you'd cheer up if we visited you."

"SOOOOOOULLLL! ARE YOU ALRIGHT? SPEAK TO ME! LOOK AT MY FACE! LET ITS GLORY HEAL YOU! DON'T WORRY, I GOT YOUR BACK! THE GREAT BLACKSTAR WILL MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER!" The turquoise-headed boy shook me around in a berserk fashion; man, did that hurt!

"MAKAAA CHOP!" That sent the 'Big Star'to the infirmary mattress next to mine. "He's awake, you idiot! And don't do that!" She came over to me frantically to inspect my current condition after the attack of good-intentions.

"Hey, Soul, how you feeling?" Liz stood leaning to one side and had both hands on her hips. She was wearing a faint smile and I could see that from what was shown, Liz was relieved to see I was still in one piece.

"I'm fine now. Took a hit to the chest but it's all good." I warned my OCD companion, "oi, Kid, don't try to kill me again if you see my scar, got it?"

He lightly chuckled under his breath. "I can't make a promise, but I'll try not to." We bumped our fists together in a friendly notion and he went to take a seat between Liz and Patty so that he wouldn't lose his sense of symmetry; he soon lost focus and began to tamper with the medicine shelves to arrange them to his liking.

"Soul has another boo-boo! Kyahahahaha, you get hurt a lot, Soul!" Like usual, Patty was giggling herself away and showed no sign of fretting.

Tsubaki's soft voice came from behind the over-energized girl. "Hello, Soul. I brought some sushi; Maka told me you like fish. Would you like some? I made it myself and well, I assumed you wouldn't like the food here as much as outside food." She tenderly giggled and handed me the container of the delicacies she had.

"It's really good, Soul! You know I'm definitely not a fan of fish, but this was delicious!" Maka seemed really enthusiastic that I should taste it, and so I did; damn, Tsubaki knows how to prepare food! Seeing my reaction to the treats, Maka giggled, "good, right?" I nodded and she smiled. Tsubaki was glad to see that we approve of her simple dish.

It was about half an hour till everyone but Maka had left the room. She stayed back to see if I wanted anything before she went home. "Nahh, I don't really want anything else." I leaned back onto my pillow.

"You sure?" She seemed to frown a little.

"Yea, I'm fine." Her frown deepened. I don't want to see her like that…and she's acting this way because she thinks she's the cause of all of this… "Don't blame yourself for me, okay? This is my fault, not yours." She dryly replied, "okay" but was obviously still depressed about it. _Way to go, idiot. You made her feel worse… _I thought to myself.

"Soul?" Maka got up from her chair and sat on the bed. I could feel her scoot closer than usual.

I stared into her forest eyes and she made no attempt to break the gaze. "What is it?" Hesitantly, she lifted her hand to my chest and tenderly set it down to where the injury was.

"Next time…I'll protect you." Her eyes began to swell with tears again and one began to flow over. I rested my hand on the side of her peachy-cream jowl and brushed the water away with my thumb. Never breaking the eye contact, she dubiously leaned forward and paused for a sec, only inches away from my face. Her cheeks were rosy again and soon, so were mine. Starting up slowly again with a tad bit more of confidence; she pressed her lips to almost the corner of mine, but still just on my cheek. I was speechless and more tomato-faced than ever before. When she pulled away, I saw that her face was just as blushed as mine. "I'll see you tomorrow." A smile flit across her mouth and she picked her bag up.

I snapped out of my daze and said, "will you be alright walking home alone?" I didn't want Medusa popping out of nowhere and attacking her. She nodded and turned on the heel to leave. Nygus-sensei appeared out of the doorway suddenly so Maka said her farewell to the nurse for the day. When my partner's footsteps were no longer heard, Nygus-sensei began her regular examinations.

"So is she your girlfriend?" I flipped out, of course, and shook my head immediately. The nurse laughed and spoke again, "she seems like she's interested in you. And she's really worried. You know, when you were in surgery, she waited all night outside the door just to see you as soon as possible."

"She did?" Nygus-sensei saying that surprised me. She nodded and I stared into space. _Maka's really that worried…? She seems interested in me? No, that's impossible. She thinks of me as a friend, I'm sure of it…_

"Breathe for me." I inhaled a couple of times deeply while she held the stethoscope to my back. "Well, your breathing and your heartbeat both sound fine. Let's just check your stitches." She unwound all the bandages and inspected the way the wound was healing. "It looks like it's recovering quite nicely. You should be outta here in a week or so. Maybe even earlier than that. Okay, well I'll leave you to sleep." Nygus-sensei changed wraps and let me put my shirt back on after she was finished.

"Thanks." I saw her nod so she killed the lights and left the room. I soon fell to slumber. Sleep wasn't a safe haven for me though; the same nightmare from earlier came again and again, every single time I closed my eyes.

"Alright, Mr. Eater, you're stitches are all healed and you're ready to go home." Nygus-sensei let me get into my regular cloths and Maka walked in.

"Soul! You ready?" My partner skipped to me jubilantly and giggled.

"Yea. Let's go. Thanks, Nygus-sensei." I bowed my head a little and went down the hall with Maka. We left the school grounds and got my bike to take a slow ride home. It was great to be on the cruiser again; and having Maka hold onto me and set her head between my shoulder blades made everything even better. When we got to the complex, it was sundown and Maka seemed a little more bubbly than usual. "Hey, what's got you so excited?"

Fumbling with her keys, she faced my way with her eyes closed and giggled, "What? I can't be happy that my partner's home?" She unlocked the door and we entered the apartment. Blair jumped up to greet me and I pet her between the ears. She purred in contentment and jumped into Maka's hold. "Hey, Blair! Soul's finally home!" The overjoyed girl shut the door and put the cat down. Looking into my eyes, she sang out, "welcome home, Soul."

"It's good to be home." I smiled and she wrapped her arms around the back of my neck the way she did when I gave her the scythe. I let my arms fall into place on the small of Maka's back and pulled her in close to let her mold with me. She melted into my embrace and I could feel her smile on my chest. We let each other go so that I could take a seat in the couch to rest; I turned the T.V. on to watch a basketball game.

"So do you want me to make you something? I haven't gone shopping yet, so all we have is ramen and uhm…oh, and ravioli." I told her ramen would be fine so she got two cups from the pantry and heated up some water. While waiting for it to boil, she sat next to me on the couch and stared at me.

"Hmm? What is it, Maka?" I muted the T.V. and met her gaze.

"I…I was worried about you…" She frowned and cringed; probably from the thought of Crona's attack on me. "I could feel your…your soul fading away. I thought I was gonna lose you…" She croaked out. I could tell she was trying to swallow a lump in her throat. We were both dead silent once she said that. The only thing heard was the water in the kitchen boiling.

My soul? What does she mean…? "What are you talking about, 'my soul'?"

"Ever since I was thirteen years old…I've been able to perceive souls…I'd understand if you don't believe me." What she said was obviously something difficult to comprehend…but maybe that's the reason why she stared at my chest… "Well forget it. By that look on your face you obviously think I'm lying." She fiddled with her fingers, embarrassed.

"No, no, I do believe you!" I lied.

"Really? Then why do you still feel like it's a practical joke?" How'd she know…? Hushed, I gaped at her and she just sighed. "So I have to prove to you that I can see people's souls?" Again, I was quiet so she let out a breath again. "Whatever…" Maka's eyes looked anguished that I didn't quite take what she said seriously. "Anyway, I really thought I was gonna lose you… and it's entirely my fault…I-I'm sorry…"

I got up and moved closer to her. "Why are you sorry? Me getting hurt was my doing. _None_ of it was your fault! Stop blaming yourself!" I was just a little too loud and she looked down shading her eyes with her sandy bangs. "Sorry, I didn't mean to yell, I just-" I broke off and saw her body tense; before I knew it, I had her in my arms. "It's not your fault, okay…?"

She sniffed and she rubbed her eyes dry of tears. I felt her lean into me for a moment and then pull away. "I should go get the water now." The girl's lips spread into a forced smile and she got up to do what she needed. I heard silverware clanking around in the kitchen and water pouring into the cups. As I unmuted the T.V. to continue watching the game, Maka came back with the food. "Here you go." She handed me one of the cups and I thanked her. We sat there in silence with an occasional slurp of noodles and the cheers on the screen. It wasn't awkward or anything, it was just quiet.

"Oi, Maka…?" I was coming to the last bits of ramen at the bottom. She looked my way to assure me I had captured her attention. "I just want you to know…I put myself in the way cuz I didn't want you to get hurt." _'I'd die for you'. Just say it! _"I…I would…uh, never mind…" I was too nervous to say that. What if she thought I was a creep for saying that? What if she thought I was desperate?

Her head tilted from the baffling cut-off. "You'd what?" I got up to throw my cup away and she watched me. I then opened the door to my room and stopped midway walking through. "Hey wait!"

I said it as low as I could, but loud enough so she could hear me. Blushing, I said, "I-I'd do anything to keep you safe…e-even if I die trying…" Without looking directly at her, I saw her eyes widen and a hint of a smile smack onto her face. Before disappearing into my sleeping chamber, I bid her ado for the evening."Alright then…goodnight."

"Goodnight, Evans…I-I lo…" I shut my bedroom door. Wait, what'd she say? Reopening it, I stuck my head out and asked if she said anything; Maka just said no so I replied, "oh. Okay. Goodnight." I wonder what that was about…

Maka and I took a stroll through the halls of Shibusen the next morning; that is until Liz, Patty and Tsubaki took her away to feed gossip into her brain. Just as the girls did so, Kid and Blackstar shoved me aside into a wall. "What the hell you guys!"

My egoistic friend pinned me, "did you know that Maka has a crush on you?"

"Yea! You know how close she is to Tsubaki! She spilled her little secret to her the other night! Do you like her back?" Even Kid was into this?

I pushed Blackstar off and sighed. "Look, I'm pretty sure she doesn't like me in that way. She'd never date a guy like me." I brushed off my jacket. "Besides, why would I like her?"

The two guys just stared at me to see if they could break my poker face. Luckily, they didn't see through my defenses. If they were the girls…well, that'd be a different story.

"Well, you know, if you didn't like her, you wouldn't let her kiss you, right?" Kid asked suspiciously.

Wait, what? How'd he know? "W-what are you talking about?"

Blackstar interrupted. "Weeeeellll, Tsubaki told me that Maka said she kissed you. Riiiiiiiight there!" He jabbed his finger right next to my mouth—that's exactly where Maka had set her lips.

Crap. "Alright, fine. You caught me." I sighed and recollected myself. "So what should I do?" I began to walk signaling them to come along.

Kid seemed pretty excited about this. "Well, how about I host a party? I'll make it so you have to bring a date…so what about that?" I saw the golden irises of the OCD child grow distant and awestruck. Jeez…  
>"Get it in, Soul!" Blackstar teased a dirty joke—laughing hysterically—and slapped my back as a playful gesture.<p>

I palmed my face, "Blackstar…no." I looked at Kid; his eyes were still glassy as he was lost in his daze. "I don't think so about that party. That's not my thing."

"Soul, you know you really wanna take her! Everyone can also see that you like her, just by the way you look at her." Blackstar winked and nudged at me. I grunted at him.

"I don't look at her in any particular way…" I muttered.

Kid gave me a _'not even'_ glare. He crossed his arms and matter-of-factly spoke, "trust me, you _do_." Well, I suppose I was defeated. Kid wouldn't joke about that; he was quite precise about his observations.

"Alright then. How about later today, we have a basketball game. We'll have a punishment for which team loses. The consequence will be determined on the court." I don't want to just agree to the party right away. I'm too nervous to ask Maka to anything like that. _She'll dress herself up all nice and everything…_ I shook off the thought and spoke again, "that cool?"

The guys both nodded and we went off to first period. There, I saw Maka surrounded by the other three girls; it looked like they were trying to jump her or something. Catching a glimpse of Maka's face, she was freaking out and madly blushing. It was cute like always, but I felt bad for all the 'juicy gossip'being squeezed out of her.

"Hey, Soul, you got that look on your face again." Kid and Blackstar gave me a smug expression that was slightly perverted. "I'm telling you; go make an official relationship with her already!" Kid elbowed me, which just caused me to huff at him and find a random seat away from their harassment.

_So Maka really did like me…? I mean, if she told Tsubaki that, wouldn't that be true? She tells her __**everything**__…and she __**did**__ kiss me…well, on the cheek. So then…she likes me…she really likes me…doesn't she?_

Looking over at Maka one more time, I saw that Liz and Patty were making some kind of accusation toward her causing Maka to become flushed deeply and throw her hands up in surrender. The older Thompson looked like she said 'whatever' in a sarcastic gesture and her younger sister just laughed as she always does. Tsubaki patted Maka's back in an apologetic manner as Liz and Patty went to their seats next to Kid. I found a seat next to Maka and said, "they juiced you too?" She nodded nervously. After a moment or two, she relaxed some. "So…you like me, huh?" Slowly, I turned my head toward her, my heart pounding. "I've known you did…since the day I met you. But you didn't realize it yet until you burned your hand…I'm telling you, I can sense it in your soul." The last warning bell rang and Ms. Marie began to talk.

Maka cornered me…she could sense everything I felt in my soul…all this time.


	9. Chapter 9

SE: A Tainted Soul, A Pure Promise

Chapter 9: Dangerous Walk

* * *

><p>…<em>it made me feel faint. I was woozy and it was getting hard to stand.<em>

"_So does this mean…?"_

_Maka sweetly smiled at me. "Mhhm."_

* * *

><p>When the last bell of the day rang, everyone rushed out of last period; it was Thursday, so no one was worn out and sore from combat. To see the halls filled with energized students instead of drained zombies was kind of pleasant.<p>

Blackstar came up behind me and threw his arm over my shoulder. "Ready for that basketball game, Soul?"

"Yea, sure."

Tsubaki quietly spoke, "oh, you boys are going to play basketball? That sounds like fun!" She shyly giggled and held her hands together in front of her.

We passed by Sid-sensei's class—Maka's eighth period—and stopped to let her catch up. Noticing that we were conversing about doing something later, she said, "hey guys. Do we have plans later?"

I answered her as Kid and the Thompsons joined the chat, "yea. Us guys are gonna play some basketball. You girls wanna play?" Maka looked at me with a bewildered aspect upon her face. "What?"

"You actually play basketball? I thought that all _you_ did was sit there in front of the T.V. and watch it!" She seemed quite amused at the thought of me playing. "So, are you any good at it?"

"Hell yea, I'm good at it." Maka's face changed to more of a 'prove it'look. "Alright then. We're going to play right after we all get into some appropriate cloths. And you're playing with us."

"HUH?" She appeared shocked by the demand.

"C'mon, Maka-chaaan! Let's play basketball! Let's play! Let's play!" Patty shook and squeezed Maka in an embrace and giggled the whole time doing so. "It's gonna be fun, Maka-chan! Don't be a poop!"

"B-but I don't know how to play!" My distressed partner was going haywire, "can't Liz play? I mean, she knows how to, right?"

"No way! I know how to play, but I'm not going to!" Liz was obviously too reluctant to join the game. "It took forever to grow my nails! I'm not gonna risk breaking them!"

Maka cried out, "but I-!"

I flung my arm around her and said, "no 'buts'! We're going home to change then we're meeting at the court! You're playing, Maka, no exceptions!" She tried to push me off of her but I held on tight and dragged her to the motorcycle. The others just watched us go and laughed; Blackstar teased me about 'getting it in'again while Kid and the girls just chuckled at Maka. Why did I have to get the pervy joke thrown at me?

Flying down the street on the cruiser, Maka was going berserk. "Slow down, you reckless idiot!" I told her to hold on to me and shut up until we got to the apartment. When we got off, she pulled the book on me. "You're really stupid, did you know that?"

Rubbing my bashed skull, I nodded, "well you're not so smart either. You practically begged to shoot some hoops against me with that look of yours. Now you're going down!" Opening the door the front door, I scurried to my bedroom and got into some basketball shorts and a long-sleeved royal blue shirt; I then put a white headband in my hair and left my sleeping quarters with my cerulean and white Jordan's' in my hand to check if Maka was ready. Of course, with her being a girl and all, it took her forever. I knocked on her door and called, "oi, Maka! You're taking a long-ass time in there! Hurry up!"

She answered back with a suppressed volume because of the barrier between us, "no! I don't wanna go! I'll just stay here! I can't play!"

Barging into her room, I caught sight of her just as she was pulling her shirt down into place. "Oh, uh, sorry-"

Maka grabbed a book off her nightstand; she threw it at my face and blushed madly. "What the hell! Knock on the freaking door when you come in!" I watched her as she untied her ponytails and ruffled her hair out a bit; then throwing a sweater on, zipping it up, and adjusting her sweatpants, she walked passed me into the living room to plop onto the couch. "Hey, get outta my room and shut the door, will ya?" With sass, she opened her book and began to read.

Before shutting the door, I grabbed a pair of her sneakers and threw them to her so that I could put mine on; I then clutched her by the hood. "Come on." She barely made a thud when she hit the floor as I lugged her off the sofa. "Don't coop yourself up at home. Put your shoes on and let's go."

"Ow, Soul! You'd just let me drop on the floor like that?" She smacked the back of my leg but I kept on walking; Maka shoved her feet into her shoes reluctantly.

"Hey, it's not my fault you only know how to land on your ass." Maka grunted at me and turned back to her reading. "Jeez, even if I'm dragging you, you're still reading your damn book? You're such a nerd…why don't you just get up and make this easier to get to the court instead of using me as a taxi?"

"No, you dropped me on my butt!" When I looked down at her pouty face, I couldn't help but to laugh. "What? Stop laughing at me! Jeez, jerk."

"You're cute when I aggravate you." I felt her struggling cease and she was silent for the rest of the way to where the others were waiting. When I looked down at her, she was looking at me; her cheeks had a slight tinge of red. I crookedly smiled at her and stopped walking. She stood and brushed herself off. "Alright, we're here. So, who's captain?" I said.

The younger Thompson was wearing a hat with the brim behind shading her forehead. That was the 'Captain's Cap'. "Patty, give Maka the hat." Kid ordered the bubbly girl. She replied with a 'kayy!' and set it onto Maka's head.

"Ehh? What's this for?" My partner was completely clueless. This was gonna be fun.

"It's for your hair. Hehehe." Patty walked away and hopped around.

No one stood up to be captain so I spoke up, "alright, I"ll be captain. Kid, Tsubaki, you're on my team. Patty, Blackstar, you'll be on Maka's."

"Wait, _my_ team? Huh?" The basketball-naïve girl was clearly baffled.

"Mhhm! Maka-chaaan, you're the captain! You're wearing the hat, seeeee?" Patty poked at her head.

"EH? Why me? Blackstar, you should be the captain! You'd have all the attention on you!"

Miserably, the Big Star fell to the ground and whined out, "I know, but I thought that I should give you a chance at this."

"Why do you chose now to be generous?" Maka screamed abashed, and flailed her arms wildly.

And so with that, we began. I checked the ball to the blue-haired boy and he passed it back.

"Wait, Soul isn't on our team…why'd you pass it to each other?"

I faked Blackstar to the left and went right then I passed the ball to Tsubaki and she took a shot. Scoring a point, my team cheered and we continued on with the game. Maka was frantically yelling, "hold on, you guys! I don't know what's going on! Wait! Stop playing real quick! Guys!" By the time we got to five points, I remembered that we were supposed to place punishments before we started. I called a time-out and my flustered partner breathed out a 'phew'.

"Oi, I forgot to tell you guys. Losing team has to have their captain take a punishment." Maka's jaw dropped; I snickered at her, "if your team loses, Maka, then you gotta have a day-out with your creepy papa."

Kid came up to me a whispered in my ear, "hey! This is the perfect time to make her go out on a date with you! Or, make her come with you to my party where I'm making it a 'couples only'thing!" I fanned him away and made a 'ngh'sound.

"No, wait! That's a little harsh, isn't it? Can you change the punishment?" The opposing captain complained. I gave her a smug glare and shook my head no. She stood their jittering and frantic while the other players and I stared at her waiting for her end of the agreement. "What? Why are you all looking at me?"

Blackstar answered her, "well, it's your turn to pick a punishment for Soul. He's the other captain, remember?" He rubbed his nose with his thumb and snorted, "man, Maka, you're such a noob."

Her whole face reddened and she hammered Blackstar straight down onto his cranium. "Alright, fine. Uhm…you…you have to clean the apartment the way I want it, and you have to keep cleaning until I think it's good!" She seemed to approve her decision in her mind.

"Okay, then! Let's start where we left off! Tsubaki, pass!" The camellia threw the ball over to me and I swiftly rounded around Blackstar and bounced the ball to Kid. He shot from the three-point line and swished. "That's eight to zero! First one to 21 wins!" My team quickly received 12 more points whilst Maka's had gained only five—those points being made by Blackstar and Patty. I saw the way my partner has been reacting to the game this whole time. She's still confused as hell, which was hilarious and adorable. "Oi, Maka, only one more point away and you're on a father-daughter date with that pervert!"

"Oh yea? We'll catch up! You just watch!"

I dribbled the ball in front of her; she attempted to swipe it away but I countered by spinning around to face my back to her. "Why don't you take a look at our points? My team is one from winning; you have 15 more to go, Tiny Tits!" She was fuming and nearly punched me in the back, but I dodged and went for the basket. It bounced off the rim a couple of times and whirled around it once before swirling down through the net slowly but surely. Blackstar and Patty had their arms around each other and were chanting 'Punishment! Punishment!' while I said, "that makes 21. Looks like you'll be spending some quality time with your papa." She hung her head in defeat and groaned. I just chuckled, but then Kid came and leaned over my shoulder.

He whispered into my ear again, "Stupid! You like her! Why didn't you just 'punish'her to go out on a date or to the party?" He pulled away and stared at my face. This time, without leaning forward to speak into my ear, he said quietly, "why are you so shy about it? You should go for it! She obviously has an interest in you. Are you blind or something?"

"No, I just-"

"Hey, why so secretive you guys? Tell your god what you're whispering about." Blackstar jumped into the conversation and we made a triangle with our arms over each one of our shoulders.

Kid groaned, "Soul won't take this opportunity to ask Maka out. We all know they like one another." Blackstar nodded in agreement and huffed, leaving the circle to join the rest of our friends.

"There's been a change of punishment! Maka, your new punishment is to go on a date with Soul Saturday afternoon and have a coffee with him at Deathbucks Café!" He jabbed his finger in Maka's face. "You gotta pay—this _is _a punishment." _How did he come up with that? I thought his brain was filled with his thoughts of surpassing god, not a plan to make Maka and I go on a date…_

Kid added onto the deal. "And, it's not one of those friend-dates. It's a romantic date—well sorta. I mean you gotta, well…oh! I'm having a party on Saturday too, so yes, yes, that works! You also have to be his date to my party! It's a 'couples only'thing, with the exception of myself and the hostesses—Liz and Patty. I must maintain my symmetry at all costs, you know." Seeing the sparkle in the OCD child's eyes, I could tell I wasn't going to find my way out of this.

Maka was blushing—well so was I, but she was obviously a lot more embarrassed than I was. "R-really…? I have to go on an actual _date_ with….with S-Soul?" Everyone nodded, except for me; I was also astonished by what the two guys just did. That was something I'd expect the girls to do…well, Liz anyway, but she wasn't here.

Patty giggled, "Maka-chan! You're blushing like crazy! Soul and Maka sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G! Kyahahahahah!" As the hysterical girl was spelling out 'kissing', Blackstar joined in with her. _I swear, they're like siblings…_ "First comes love! Then comes marriage! Then comes the baby in the baby carriage!"

"Alright, alright! That's enough, I think we get it." I stepped in to stop the cliché little nursery tune. "Well then, the sun is starting to set. I guess we should go home."

"Yea, I think we should, Soul." Maka was just as eager to get away from all the humiliating teasing as I was. So we said our goodbyes and all of us went our separate ways.

It was a couple of minutes into the silent walk when Maka spoke, "man that was _really _embarrassing…" My partner dropped her face into her hands while mine were shoved in my pockets.

"Sorry about that. T-that plan—it was all them. I didn't even agree to it." I admitted. Blushed, I set my attention on the surroundings. We were walking down a filthy alley with garbage cans tipped over and unknown substances littering the stone path.

"Then wouldn't that mean we don't have to go along with it?" Maka questioned; it sounded like she had her head up so I turned to look at her. "I mean, it's not like I don't want to, err, I mean I _do_ want to, wait no, I mean…uh…" The stuttering girl snapped her gaze away and faced away from me. "Anyway, you didn't agree to it, so wouldn't it be alright if we didn't go on the date? I mean, I want to go, but I-I'm not desperate for it." I just shrugged and felt just as inept as she did. Then, Maka stopped walking; I could feel a tense vibe transpire from her.

"What is it?"

"S-Soul…I can feel another soul around here…it's familiar, but I can't exactly say who it is…" I also halted to wait up for her. She looked dead serious and somewhat frightened. Her senses were alert and now so were mine since inspecting her condition. Suddenly, Maka gasped, "SOUL, LOOK OUT!" She tackled me to the ground, and in that moment, a snake with an arrow pattern on its head struck at us—thank goodness Maka did what she had. "Are you okay?" Her petite frame was crouched on top of my body, both her legs on each side of me.

"Yea, I'm fine. You?" She nodded and brought herself to her feet—as did I. In that instant, a dark figure appeared from behind the brick walls that belonged to one of the buildings surrounding us.

The entity was entirely shaded and we could see no face, yet a petrified Maka muttered, "…M-Medusa…"

"Hello, you two. It's been a while. How've you been?" I remember that malevolent chuckle…that was definitely her. "Soul, how's that injury from Crona?"

"What the hell are you doing here? And why'd you send that Crona chic after us? Where'd you steal her from, huh?" I exploded on her. She tried to kill us! I can't trust this lady…

The snake woman only cackled. "Oh, no. I didn't steal her from anyone. She's my daughter, you see—and she listens to everything I tell her to do. If I order to kill, Crona will do so. However, she failed to fulfill my command so she has to be punished. And you two rats got away from her…so now, your lives are in my hands." Medusa stepped closer to us and we could see tattoos winding up her arms—they resembled those sly reptiles that I perceived her as. Her feet were bare and I could only see a crazed grin under the shadow of her hood. Medusa conjured up a gun from within her shirt; I heard the _click-click _of her cocking back the weapon. "It was nice meeting you two, but I can't have you wielding scythes. You see, my family descends from the infamous superior Gorgon witches. I can't have you eliminating me, so I'll just have to eliminate you."

_Dammit! If only I had my regular clothes, I'd have my guns and knives on me! Lucky bitch got us while we were vulnerable…_ "Maka, stand behind me…" I got in front of her and she jumped into my place.

"NO! I said I'd be the one to protect you! I can't let you get hurt again! Never!" She ran toward the snake woman and punched her gut; the woman pulled the trigger on instinct and then Maka…she was shot.

"MAKA!" I frenetically rushed to her side while Medusa fiddled with the gun to reload. "MEDUSA, I'LL KILL YOU!" Just as the witch descendant cocked the gun again, I slugged her in the face knocking her down on her back and stole the gun from her grasp. "You bitch! You shot Maka!" Pulling the trigger on her, I managed to miss her skull by just a couple of centimeters even though it was such close range. The snake chuckled and kicked my sternum causing me to cough and nearly vomit.

"Foolish boy! You think you'll slip away so easily this time? I don't think so! Crona failed because you had that stupid deathscythe and scientist rescue you brats! But now, you don't have them at hand, do you?" Her evil chortle echoed through the alleyway. Maka was still on the ground behind me, groaning from the gunshot. I still didn't know where she was hit! What if it was her chest? What if she was going to die any minute? Dammit, a cool guy like me would never let his partner just die like this! Especially since I'm like…crazy for her! I attempted to shoot the woman again but made a grim discovery that she hadn't loaded but one bullet.

"Dammit!" Charging her way, I swung the useless long-range artillery towards her but she avoided my assault and grabbed my throat. I dropped the gun and was pinned to a dumpster as she clawed and ripped at my jugular. "M-Medus-aa!" I just barely croaked out.

"Hush, boy, you're just making it a lot worse than it should be." Then, a switchblade was pulled out from her back pocket. "Now, this will only hurt a little…" Medusa brought her lips close to my ear and eerily breathed, "or…just a whole lot." My lungs were screaming for air and out of the corner of my eye, I could see Maka attempting to crawl toward me. I motioned for her to stay put as Medusa drew back the blade to stab me. "Don't worry, Soul. I'll be sure to give her a nice, slow, painful death…I just need you out of the way. You seem to be quite protective of your little girlfriend…" Just as the knife was to penetrate my chest, something had struck an assault to Medusa's back. She fell to the ground and struggled to pick herself up. "What the…" A shoe was taken to her face and she flew a couple feet away from us, letting the knife go as she went.

"C-Crona?" I was shocked; she was the last person I'd expect to see here. And I thought she listened to everything her mother said? Now the girl was going against her? What's going on?

"H-hello. I came to say I'm sorry for slashing you in the chest…Medusa-sama told me too…s-she…I-I didn't know what to do some I just listened to her-" Medusa slammed Crona into the alley wall.

"You rotten child! I shall punish you! How dare you hit me! Ungrateful little brat!" The cruel woman held the girl by the back of her head and repeatedly bashed her face into the bricks.

"Get—out of—here whi—while you still—can!" Crona screamed between each drawback of Medusa's arm.

I gathered Maka in my arms and saw that she was shot at the left side of her abdomen. It wasn't that bad of a shot, but she could still die from it. I'm not gonna be uncool and let Maka die! I lifted my partner onto my back and turned away from the fight between mother and daughter.

"S-Soul…ngh, don't leave…gahh…don't leave Crona…she needs your help!" I looked at Maka with pleading crimson eyes. "Please, Soul…help her. She came here just to save the both of us…"

I gave in to Maka's begging. Setting her down carefully and away from Medusa, I went back and grabbed the blade from the ground; while Medusa was still distracted by her daughter, I took the opening and pierced through the skin of the witch descendent. She fell to the ground and yelped in agony. I punctured her one last time to the abdomen—the same place she shot Maka—and checked up on Crona. "Hey are you alright?"

"I-I'm not sure. My face hurts and I don't know how to deal with it…" The confused girl felt her cheeks. They were stained by blood and just beginning to swell.

"Come on, let's go!" Just as we were to ditch the scene, Dr. Stein and Spirit appeared before us with their scythes.

"Are you guys alright?" The scientist asked.

I shook my head, "I'm fine, but Maka was shot. And uh, C-Crona here, she was slammed into the wall face first a bunch of times."

"MY MAKA! HOW IS MY MAKA?" Spirit saw that Maka was spilling her vital fluids from the gunshot wound. "You bitch! You shot my dear Maka? I'll kill you!" Well, I guess that's one thing that man and I will ever have in common…We both wanted to murder that woman for hurting the same girl we deeply care for.

"You guys head to Shibusen. We'll handle it from here. And Soul, I'm going to need you to bring Crona to Shinigami-sama—after she's treated, of course."

"Yea, gotcha." I turned on the heel and carried Maka on my back again while Crona stumbled behind me. "Just do your best to keep up with me!" Crona replied with a stuttered 'o-okay' and faltered an awkwardly paced run behind me.

Even though Maka was clinging onto me, it was extremely easy to dash to the school; her grip was starting to loosen and her breath was beginning to fade so I pushed myself to go faster. When we finally reached the doors to Shibusen, Maka was unconscious. I raced down the hall to the infirmary and called for Nygus-sensei. She quickly patched Crona's minor injuries up and gave her an ice pack. As the nurse was preparing to perform surgery to retrieve the bullet from Maka's body, I had to send Crona to Lord Death's office. For the first time in my life, I was bewildered, scared, murderous and agonized.

As I came back from Lord Death's office, I wasn't stunned to meet the dispensary's door; I realized Maka must've been undergoing the procedure since it was closed. Pounding the wall next to the gateway to the sick bay, I turned and slid down the wall with eyes beginning to water. Desperately, I attempted to hold it the waterworks back and swallow the lump in my throat. _So this is what Maka felt when __**I**__ was in there… What kind of a night is this…?_

"Maka…please be alright…" The freezing empty hallway of Shibusen was my bed for the night, as I awaited the news that the coming of dawn would bring.


	10. Chapter 10

SE: A Tainted Soul, A Pure Promise

Chapter 10: Maka's Visitors

* * *

><p>…<em>it made me feel faint. I was woozy and it was getting hard to stand.<em>

"_So does this mean…?"_

_Maka sweetly smiled at me. "Mhhm."_

* * *

><p>I was curled up against the wall with my head between my knees. The infirmary door nest to me creaked open which caused me to jump to my feet and immediately ask, "Maka! Is she okay? Can I go see her?"<p>

Nygus-sensei soothingly and sympathetically patted my shoulder. "She's alright. Maka's sleeping right now, but if you want to, you can go in to see her. That bullet just barely missed a vital organ—it was pretty lucky." I guess the nurse noticed the horrified expression that slapped across my face because she added, "oh don't worry. Her wound will heal up in a couple of weeks. She'll be just fine." Breathing out a sigh, I thanked her and went into the room.

Seeing Maka just laying there was awful. She looked so fragile with the IVs and oxygen tubes hooked up to her; I thought that if I touched her, she'd break apart. Sending myself to her bedside, I dragged over a seat and plopped onto it. "Maka…" I whispered.

My partner stirred in her sleep in reaction to hearing my voice. Without opening her eyes, she croaked, "S-Soul…?" I raised my hand to her cheek to stroke it and hushed her.

"No, you need your rest. Sorry I woke you…go to sleep…" She relaxed back into her pillow and breathed softly. "I'm sorry…a cool guy would never let this happen to his partner…" I closed my eyes and rested my head on the edge of her bed, still lightly rubbing her jowl with the back of my index. A hand held my jaw and brought me to stare at the big round olives that I so desperately needed to see.

"Hey you idiot, this time, it's my fault." She smiled weakly. With a wiggle of her finger, the girl coaxed me to come close to her face so that she could kiss my nose; I stayed bent over her to caress her cheek in my palm. Feeling my crimson orbs magnetized with her forests, she murmured, "so I guess we can't go on that date, huh? And that party…?" Maka somewhat frowned. "I was actually kinda looking forward to it…"

"We can always go some another time, right?" I pressed my lips to her forehead and kept them there for a moment.

Then suddenly, "YAHOO! Don't worry, Maka! The great Blackstar will-" He caught sight of what I was doing after barging in unannounced. I pulled my lips away from Maka, blushing; Tsubaki clapped a hand over the Big Star's mouth before he could yell 'Get it in!'and dragged him out of the door.

Taking a seat in the chair I had pulled up earlier, I yelled to the ninjas outside, "you can come in."

Tsubaki led the blue-haired boy and herself back into the clinic and apologized for interrupting.

"I think my signature will make you feel better, Maka!" Blackstar grabbed a black magic marker out of his pocket and got on top of my partner's bed. "Now hold still!"

"Blackstar! Stop it!" She tried to push him off but cringed from the pain of her healing wound. Maka gave up but complained as he signed the area on her forehead that I had just kissed. Dammit, Blackstar…

"Blackstar! Don't do that to her!" Tsubaki lugged the laughing boy off of her. "Sorry, Maka-chan. I'll get a washcloth to clean you up." She went to the sink that sat in the room and soaked a paper towel. The camellia came back over and rubbed away the ink.

I walked over to see the damage. It turns out that her forehead wasn't the only thing Blackstar had marked; he drew in thick facial hair on Maka's upper lip, making me try my hardest not to laugh. The victimized girl saw me holding back a chuckle and stuck her tongue out at me while Tsubaki continued to clean my partner's face. The meek assassin girl then warned Blackstar not to do it again.

The OCD child and the Thompsons soon popped into the room to greet us. "Hello, everyone! How're you doing, Maka?" Kid said.

"I'm doing okay—the wound kinda aches a little, but other than that, I'm completely fine. Oh, and I'll be stuck in here for a couple weeks."

Patty laughed, "Maka-chan, you and Soul-kun end up in here a lot! Kyahahaha! Right, Onee-chan?" The bubbly girl elbowed at her sister.

"Yea, Patty's right. What's been up? Are you being targeted by that Medusa lady or something?" As usual, the older Thompson stood with her hands on her hips in a laid back fashion.

"Well, actually, yes. She _is _targeting us. She doesn't want us around cuz we use scythes. Those are the main weapons that were used to take witches out back then. Turns out, she descends from the Gorgon family—they were an infamous dynasty of witches." Maka answered. By the looks of her grimacing face, she was obviously thinking back at that devious woman who shot her.

Liz was taken aback by what Maka had said. "Wow, I didn't even realize. I always thought she was a good nurse, but not anymore."

"Well, let's not reminisce on such evils," suggested Kid. "So I guess the party should be moved? When do you think you'll get out of here?"

"Not so sure. Maybe in two weeks?" My partner looked to the ceiling in thought. "Why don't you ask Nygus-sensei?"

"Good idea!" As Kid went off to find the nurse, Blackstar was somewhat serious for once.

"So, do you know what happened to this old hag? I think I need to kick some ass for you. A big star like me can't let crazy witch ladies go around shooting my friends." He swiped at his nose with his thumb and laughed which sent a satisfied smile on Maka's lips; seeing her like that made me make the same gesture.

"Well, last time we saw her, Papa and Dr. Stein were beating the crap outta her. So I don't know what happened." Maka seemed displeased with that fact. She folded her hands in her lap and stared at them, annoyed with the fact that we were all clueless of the snake woman's whereabouts. A sudden light tapping on the door made us slightly jump. "Oh, come in."

"H-hello…" A certain bone-thin, pinkish-purple haired girl that happened to slice my chest open a couple of weeks ago appeared in the doorway.

"Crona? What are you doing here?" Maka asked. Everyone else was alert and on guard. "Guys, it's okay. She's a…she's a friend."

"Well, I guess if it's cool with Maka, then it's cool with me. Welcome to the group, Crona." I smirked at the girl; she seemed startled and jumped back on impulse, but relaxed to see that we all welcomed her.

"T-thank you. M-Maka-san, how's your-" My partner held up a hand and shook her head.

"You can call me Maka-chan. I'm your friend." She gave a sweet smile.

"O-oh, okay. W-w-well, how's your uh-uhm, injury? Are you a-alright?" Man, this girl was so nervous. She was obviously afraid to get close to people…but then again, I'm afraid to do so too.

Maka gave a weak and friendly laugh. "I'm doing okay. Oh, hey! Kid here is throwing a party once I'm outta here. You think you'd want to come? Oh, wait…it's a couple thing, right, Kid? Man…"

"Oh, we can make an exception to a new friend. So what do you say Crona?" Kid was surprisingly calm with this. "So you met with my father, I presume?"

"W-who?" Crona stuttered. I was interested too. Of the months that I've known the OCD child, he hasn't mentioned his father and I haven't seen him.

"Well, Shinigami-sama, or Lord Death, of course. My full name is Death The Kid, Crona—and being named that is only appropriate." He spoke so matter-of-factly. I didn't even make that connection. _Man, do I feel like a totally uncool idiot…_

"O-oh, y-yes, I met your father then. H-he seems nice. Lord Death t-told me that I could stay in a visitors'room for a w-while." Crona stayed far from where the rest of the group was just holding her arm in her hand. "T-then he asked me why I went b-berserk."

My eyes widened. That's right…she's not going crazy right now…and when we were fighting, she said:

_"Hehehe, it's the blood. The black blood! Kekekekeh, you can't pierce me when I'm on the black blood!"…"The black blood makes it harder to cut through me! You can't kill me! I can only kill you! That's the only way…"_

"Back when you fought us, you spouted something about 'black blood'. What the hell was that about?" I eyed the nervous wreck and made her jump.

"M-M-Medusa-sama…it's a drug she made. S-she…it makes it so that your fearless. Y-you have no control of yourself…i-it makes your body h-harder to c-cut through. Medusa-sama kept giving me a b-bunch of d-doses…I-I'm sorry, that's why I slashed y-you…I didn't w-want to. I-I'm s-s-sorry."

"No, there're no hard feelings. So tell me more about the 'black blood'." I beckoned Crona to go on.

She shakily nodded her head, "w-well, that's kinda all I know. I didn't know how else to deal with Medusa-sama e-except to let her d-drug me. Then everything goes b-b-blank and then the next thing I know, I-I'm covered in blood with my sword, Ragnarok, in my hands. Sh-sh-she always says 'good job, Crona. Now go wash up—we're having dinner tonight'. I-I always get that from her wh-when I come out of the trance. Th-then I find out that I killed a bunch people a-and I…I d-don't know how to deal with it…" Crona sniffled and rested her face in her hands. Obviously traumatized by the drug, she shuddered and began to sob. "I-I'm just a guinea pig to her, b-b-but I wanted to please Medusa-sama—except, not anymore. Wh-when I'm off of the black blood, a-all I can do is sulk in M-Mr. Corner. Th-then she comes into my r-room and injects me again. It's…it's all h-horrible."

"So, I guess that's all you know about this black blood stuff, huh?" I asked. She shakily nodded, obviously lost in the fear of her mother.

Kid stood to speak, "well, I think we'd ought to start off for class, huh? It _is _Friday, after all." Beckoning for his partners to follow, he opened the door and looked back at us, "we'll be off now. Get better, Maka."

Patty hugged my partner before skipping over to Kid's side; "Bye, Maka-chaaaan! Stop getting hurt, kayyyyy?" Her bubbly self gave no serious concern as usual, so Maka just nodded and smiled.

"Yea. Jeez you two, you're gonna give us all a heart attack." Liz held a lock of hair up to the bed-confined girl. "Look! You're gonna give me gray hairs wayyy early! I'm not even 18 yet! Do you want me to look old?" The oldest Thompson sister whined.

Maka nervously giggled, "no. Sorry, Liz, I'll try not to get hurt;same goes for Soul." She stared at me for reassurance and I nodded with a smirk.

"Onee-chaaaaaan! Come on, slow poke!"

"Okay, okay! Bye guys!" The trio left with both girls on either side of the symmetry-loving freak. Then, the camellia made her way to the door dragging Blackstar behind her.

"Well, we should be off too. The bell hasn't rung yet, but knowing Blackstar, he'll probably get into a fight on our way to Ms. Marie's." She smiled at the gleaming boy that she lugged by the shirt collar; she had a hint of shame and sympathy for Blackstar hidden in that dainty grin. Crona had slipped out with the rest of them as well without making so much as a squeak.

The loud-mouthed airhead gave me a thumbs-up, "I guess you have to be gentle with her when you get it in right, Sou-" his partner gave him a smack in the back of the head and waved us off apologetically as she shut the infirmary door.

"That Blackstar...he can be such a sicko sometimes." A vein in Maka's forehead pulsed at the thought of what he said. "Anyway, shouldn't you be on your way to class, too, Soul? I don't wanna make you late."

I just smirked at her. Caressing her tender cheek in my palm, I spoke softly, "The bell didn't ring. I'm still fine for a while." A wide grin spread across her lips sending the expression to my own. "So how do you feel after all that craziness back there?"

She sighed and leaned into her pillow. "A little tired. Damn Blackstar just had to go and sign my face. Good thing Tsubaki was here to clean it up." She laughed. "At least he had good intentions...well, except for the mustache. That was a little uncalled for."

I teased her, "oh, you looked great with a mustache. I think it suits you." I gave her a smug smirk; she weakly slapped me and told me to shut up. Then the first warning bell called for students to hustle to class. "Ahh, there's the bell...so I suppose you're gonna make me leave?"

"Yep." She poke at my nose. " Don't be late. And get my homework for me?"

"Yea, yea. I got it, bookworm." Maka pulled at my bangs. "Ow, that hurts."

She took me by the chin and set her lips to my right cheek; when she let me go, I kissed her on the forehead and pulled away. "Hey," Maka stared at me smiling making me look at her suspiciously amused, "splash some cold water on your face, Mr. Cool Guy. Blushing's not a cool-guy characteristic." I then received a wink and a tongue being stuck out at me.

Becoming a deeper flushed hue, I scratched the back of my head, "oh, uhh, thanks." My legs brought me to the sink; I grabbed a paper towel and drenching it in chilled aqua and then turned to go. "I'll be back with your work later. Why don't you sleep now? You look drained."

"Kay, Soul. Now hurry before you get caught by the bell." She sweetly smiled and waved me away, and then I head off to class.

I was walking down the hall to the infirmary where Maka awaited my arrival. I had her homework in between my left forearm and bicep while in my right hand, I held a bottle of her favorite drink—mango juice with a twist of strawberry and lemon. Having tried it before, I knew that it was pretty good, but I'd much rather have a can of soda than this.

With a tap on the door, I let it creak open and poked my head into the room. "Maka? I'm here." It wasn't a surprise to me for me to find her reading in her patient's bed. I allowed the door to swing wide open and brought into view the beverage of her liking. "Got you some juice. Oh, and your papers from all the classes. There weren't many worksheets today since we had combat classes." Shuffling over to where she sat propped up on her pillow, I handed her the drink and set her work on her lap. I then plopped down on the side of the bed. "So, how you feeling?"

"Ehh, better. But not the best yet." She replied and took a sip of the fruity drink.

I nodded. "Well at least you don't feel like crap. You got back some of your color."

"Mhhm." She smiled and bowed her head in affirmation. "So were you late to class this morning?"

"Uhm... Yea but Nygus-sensei caught me in the hall and brought me back here to give me a pass. She said the final bell was gonna ring any second so I agreed to come along."

Maka looked somewhat displeased but was satisfied that I didn't get in trouble. "You idiot. Next time, leave when everyone else does, kay? No excuses to stay back!"

I looked at her amused. "What? So you don't want me doing this," I leaned in the kiss her nose, "before I go?" That caused her to blush and pull the corners of her lips up.

"No, you big dummy. I…I like it when you do that." She looked away from me, embarrassed. "I don't see why it's so hard to do it in front of them…"

In the best Blackstar impersonation I could make, I said, "ahem…'get it in, Soul!'That ring a bell?" Maka giggled at me and met my gaze.

"Okay, okay. I get it." She sighed. "So, Nygus-sensei told me I can get outta here by Sunday. And that I have to change my bandages at home. It's earlier than I expected to leave." I could see genuine surprise flint across her face.

"Cool. So, uhm..." I tucked my fidgeting hands into my jacket pockets. "You think we could take that coffee date when you get home?"

Her expression went black- that kinda startled me. "Come here." Following her order, I leaned in and she wrapped her thin arms around me, resting her chin on my left shoulder. "You have such a gushy heart inside for someone so cold to people on the outside."

Blushing, I retorted, "shut up."

Maka was buttoning up her shirt when I came into the dispensary to pick her up. She smiled at the sight of me and thanked Nygus-sensei before grabbing her duffle bag of the medical supplies she needed; she then carefully shuffled over to where I stood. "Okay, I'm ready to go." Feeling her arm find its way to link with mine, we walked off to the bike. I assisted while she gently set herself down on the cruiser; allowing her to delicately embrace me from behind, I roared the motorcycle to life and took the drive slowly. Maka evidently enjoyed this and snuggled her cheek to where she usually rested it during a ride. "Hey, Soul?" I could hear her call from the passenger seat abaft me. "Before that date, lemme take a shower. I really need an actual one instead of from a cloth and a bucket."

"Sure thing. We'll go grab that coffee whenever you're ready." We finally arrived at the complex and made our way into the apartment. The rush of a 'home-sweet-home' feeling set in; Blair greeted us with a warm, welcoming meow and rubbed up against our legs. After Maka acknowledged the house pet, she went off to her room to gather a towel and casual clothes to wear. When I heard the shower go on, I got to thinking about Medusa.

_Where did that woman go...? Did Spirit and Dr. Stein kill her? I swear, if that snake is still alive, I'll kill her myself. That's what she'll get for shooting Maka and drugging Crona and making her try to kill us. She'll pay for it all...Revenge isn't something a cool guy would be into, but in this case...I don't give a shit. _Before I knew it, I was fuming fury from my ears and had to get some iced water to cool myself down. As I took a gulp of the refershing aqua, the sound of the bathroom door opening and shutting echoed through our cubicle followed by the door of Maka's room doing the same. "Well, looks like she's done."

There was a moment of where I could hear a muffled sound of hangers and clothes shuffling around in my partner's bedroom. Then Maka called, "uhm, Soul? I...c-can you help me with something...?"

I hollered back, "sure thing. What is it?" I sauntered over to her door to listen to what she was saying.

"Come in here."Obeying what she commanded, I entered the room. Upon doing so, I came across my partner wearing white spandex shorts and a white cami that was raised to show her stomach and the stitched reddened wound. "Uhm, can you get my bag and help me change the bandage?"

Scurrying over with the supplies, I exclaimed, "Maka! You should've just stuck with that rag bath you were talking about. This still looks bad. What if it opene while you were taking a shower?"

She obviously noticed my frantic state causing her face to soften. "I'm sorry...I just...Sorry, Soul." A hint of a frown fell to her face.

"Ahh...nah, it's okay." My hand gave a scratch to the back of my head. "Sorry for flipping out." I took the antibiotic cream Nygus-sensei told her to use on the injury. Her midriff strained with my touch and I spoke softly, "tell me if it hurt." A tad gentler this time, I rubbed more of the ointment into her skin.

"I-it's fine. No need to worry," Maka shut one of her eyes in reaction to eduring the pain. When the injury was covered with the cream, I got a roll of bandages and began to wind it around her abdominal area with some tension. Maka squeaked out, "make it just a little tighter." I did so without question and she affirmed the amount of constriction with a nod. She cautiously pulled her shirt back into place then went over to her bed where she threw on a periwinkle sundress on.

I went off to the bathroom to clean up and throw away the contaminated excess bandages. After that, I came back to her bedroom to see if she was ready. "Maka? Ready to go?" I was taken aback to see her gleaming and smiling in my direction. The way that her dresslooely hung off her body was absolutely stunning, yet it clung to some parts of her perfectly outlining her petite angelic frame. Surprisingly, Maka had quickly and neatly braided her sandy blonde hair into two separate ties that were bound by ribbons whose colors matched her dress; the braids lightly fell to her fragile shoulders in a splendid way, making her appear so pure and innocent. On her feet, there were baby blue flats that looked like ballerina's shoes with ribbons tied on top. "So, I'll take it that you _are _ready?"

With a dip of her chin, she set her hand in mine and intertwined our fingers. Locking the apartment door behind me, we went off to our date at Deathbucks Cafe.


	11. Chapter 11

SE: A Tainted Soul, A Pure Promise

Chapter 11: Just From One Date

* * *

><p>…<em>it made me feel faint. I was woozy and it was getting hard to stand.<em>

"_So does this mean…?"_

_Maka sweetly smiled at me. "Mhhm."_

* * *

><p>The sun chuckled away high in the blue Nevada sky; it was neither too hot nor cold so we decided to take a stroll rather than the cruiser to Deathbucks. With my right fist in my jacket pocket and one wrapped together with my date's, I felt like my whole life was finally falling perfectly into place. Loosening up, I breathed in the warm air then squeezed Maka's hand just a bit which broke her concentration on the steps ahead of her.<p>

"You're happy. Tell me...why is that?" Her olive orbs shined into the crimson of my own.

"It's nothing really. Just...everything is...better than before." Trying to contain a smile with the happiness bubbling inside of my chest was impossible, so I let the gesture of joy free to roam across my mouth.

As we neared the cafe, we saw Ox begging at Kim's feet a couple stores away from our destination. She obviously rejected him and he hung his head in defeat, causing his bald head to glint in the sunlight; but he soon gave a thumbs up and a yell, which held words that I couldn't quite make out, then walked away as if the rejection didn't faze his love for her. _That's dedication..._I commented to myself.

I held the door open for Maka and she bounced into the coffee shop. After doing so, she reached her hand inside of an apparent dress-pocket which I hadn't noticed until now and pulled out some cash. "This date's on me, remember?" Her sweet giggle and tilt of the head made my heart flutter. God, did I feel like such a pansy thinking that...

"Alright, well I'll just make sure that I get the most expensive thing, huh?" I joked at her and she pinched my nose closed. We went up to the cashier; I ordered a regular medium coffee and Maka got a coffee of the same size with a touch of caramel mocha then paid. As we waited for the employees to prepare our beverages, my partner and I stationed ourselves to the side of the counter.

"So, since I'm out of the dispensary, we should call Kid up and tell him the party can be held...oh, I dunno, maybe _this_ weekend?" Maka suggested. I nodded and replied, 'we'll tell him on our way home' and then told her that we should enjoy the date at the moment. Soon after, our coffees had arrived in our grasps and we found a seat. Olive Eyes then stated curiously, "alright then, now that we're seated...remember that one time I asked why you left home...?"

That sent a chill down my spine. Remembering the last thing my father had done to me before I departed, I spoke in a deep growl, "I left cuz of my father...and my brother."

"Oh...? What happened?" She seemed to show concern and interest in the subject, and though I felt reluctance to tell her creep up on me, I had to say it.

"Long story short, my father beat me if I missed _one_ note in a piano recital and my brother was levels beyond my own, leaving everyone to compare me to him. So I left because I was tired of shit from people and my father." I blew on the coffee and took a small sip, only staring down into the steaming liquid.

Maka saw that I wasn't going to answer any further questions on why I left so she moved on. "Well...what was your mom like?" I saw a twinkle in her eye-no wait that was the reflection of the twinkle from my own...

"My mother...was beautiful. I took after her for everything-my eyes, my hair, my skin; the only thing I got from my dad was being a guy. My mom even taught me how to play the piano. She took such great care for me, she was kindhearted to anyone and anything... and she was the only one who loved me for me...well, except for my granny. She also loved me for being myself. But my mother was the closest person to me. I was close-ish to my brother...but never did I love anyone more than my mom. Everyone else just seemed against me." Maka hadn't touched her coffee so I signaled her to take a sip.

Acknowledging my gesture, she drank and murmured, "I'd like to meet her one day..." When she said that, I thought, _I'd like you to meet her, too..._ "So, you're brother...tell me about him."

"Ahh...Wes. He's laid back like me...only, well he's way too much of a push over. Oh, and nowhere near as cool as I am." That forced a roll to Maka's eyes. "Anyway...he was the violinist of the family. I respected his talent...to a high degree actually, but I always got compared to him. People would congratulate and praise him and pass me by or just look at me and smile. I never got a word of appreciation." My partner's face softened. "No, that's not an invitation for you to be all sympathetic for me. I don't need it. I left because I hated my dad and the shadow of my brother. That's it. Don't get all sad because of my family issues." Inside of my chest, I could feel some kind of tightening. Staring into Maka's forest irises, I quickly broke her glance and shifted my focus to the beverage that was brought to my lips. I saw Maka's concentration set on my chest-my soul- when I took a peek at her from under my snow-white bangs. "Will you quit that? I'd really appreciate it if you didn't invade on my private emotions, thank you."

She snapped out of her daze and looked down at her now luke-warm coffee. "I'm sorry." Her lips molded around the cup's lip and tilted the beverage back to swallow.

Desperate to make her lighten up, I moved the family business on her. "It's fine...anyway, tell me about your family. I already know your dad...so what's your mom like?"

After I said that, she was gone. Her eyes shined in admiration and she began, "my mother is amazing. She's gorgeous, strong, brave, intelligent, and sweet as can be; but she's also fierce. You don't ever wanna be around her when she's mad."

I smiled. "Are you sure you're not describing yourself?"

With a slight rosy tint to her cheeks and a slightly embarrassed giggle, she pointed out, "well, I took after her with pretty much everything...kinda like you with your mom. Her eyes are like large olives and she has long, silky sandy blonde hair. Her skin is fair and has a peachy cream color. You know, she was the top of her class when she went to Shibusen. Last month when we took that super test-remember the one that Blackstar tried to get the answers from Stein for? Yea, I wanted to be at the top, too. And so I did."

Figured as much. I mean, like mother, like daughter, right? It wasn't much of a surprise either that her mother had been a scholar at Shibusen.

A determined feisty expression crossed my date's face. "I'm so glad I didn't get that blood-red hair or blue eyes from Papa." Maka gulped down the rest of her drink.

What she said amused me. "So you really hate your dad, don't you?"

"Well, for the most part. He's nothing by a cheating, lying pervert with no life. When they got divorced, that was the best thing that ever happened. And that's the reason I admire my mama so much. She was so cool and collected when it all happened; my Papa on the other hand, was a complete wreck always blubbering out that he loves me and Mama. He's pathetic." Her empty cup sat on the shop's table in front of her. More slowly this time, she mumbled, "My damn Papa is the reason I can't trust men...none of them."

That made my heart sink. She didn't trust me? But the way she acted towards me...how was that _not_ trust?

"But," Maka tagged on.

_But?_

"You...You're the very first man I put all my faith into..." My jaw slightly dropped and she got up to throw away both our empty cups. When she came back, I had some drool hanging off my lip which she wiped away with her thumb.

"Really...?"

"Of course, silly! Why wouldn't I?" She closed her eyes and grinned at me; with a quick wink, she said, "now close your mouth, you'll catch flies." Maka then closed my gaping jaw and pinched my cheek- just like mom used to do. We stood and walked to the door, which I opened for her like a gentleman would. The way her olive eyes seemed to glow, it appeared as though she like the polite gestures, but hell, how would I be sure? My lover's intuition is terrible- for all I know, she could be thinking I'm being a total creep. "I think I should tell Kid to plan some partying, don'tcha think?" I nodded to Maka's suggestion and she pulled out her cell phone from within her shirt-possibly from her _undergarments_...That brought an impulsive rude remark to mind; _I didn't even know she had to wear a bra..._

After the telephone conversation was over, I offered to go home the long way; taking a stroll through the park. She was more than happy to accept the endeavor with an interlock of our fingers. I flat out stated what went through my mind just then; "you know, you may be a total tomboy badass most of the time, but you're such a girl when it comes to these things."

Her eyes narrowed. "Eh? What do you mean by _that_?"

"Well, look at you. You can kick ass, you're violent, you know how to play rough, but then when it comes to all this fluffy dating stuff, you get all...well, girly."

Maka then squinted her eyes further and stuck her finger in my mouth to pull on my cheek. "I'm not following." Her lips were pursed and suspicion was spread about her face like a plague.

I breathed in deep and let out a huge sigh. "Do you mind tak-hing your p-hinger ow oh my mouhh hirst?" She removed her hold on my inner cheek and I spoke clearly. "You kiss me on the cheek and hold my hand and hug me and everything. What's up with that anyway?"

"Idiot..." She automatically pulled out her book of 'oblivion' and slammed it down on my head as hard as she could; the Maka Chop wasn't as bad as a regular one since she couldn't exert herself due to her injury, but it was still pretty painful. "You're so blind. But it's whatever."

"What the hell do you mean by that? And why the book? Really, was the book necessary?" I rubbed my skull with my right hand; Maka took my left and we continued to walk down the dirt path that passed between a thin layer of tree walls.

"The book was most certainly necessary. You're so oblivious to everything, you know that?"

I scratched the back of my head then stuffed my fist into my jacket pocket. The rest of the stroll was calm and silent between us. It gave us both time to think; it was a good thing though, considering the amount of thinking I regularly do. Just a couple of blocks away from our complex, there was an inconspicuous thrift store we came across. Maka, being a girl, decided she wanted to check it out- I followed, obviously not being able to talk her out of it. "Don't take forever." For the most part, my voice was just a buzz in her ear she swatted away since she was so engrossed in the knick-knacks, trinkets, clothing, and other various merchandise. "Man, this is so uncool." I slumped against a wall of the store and let her do her thing.

After space-out time I'd had since she was so busy, there was an alert sent to my ears. "Soul! Come here, look!" Maka called out to me. The thought that raced through my head was, _she's probably just gonna show me a little keychain she thinks is "cute"...Jeez, girls- what can ya do..._

"Where are you?" I walked by the clerk's counter; he gave me a smug look as if to say, _got yourself a girlfriend, eh?_ That expression just made me wanna knock some teeth outta his jaw so I turned away before I could. As I zeroed in on a rack of dresses, Maka stood with violet-purple attire held up in front of her; the bottom of the dress had some lavender frills and was spaghetti strapped. It was casual, yet dressy, and I liked it. When I examined her closer, she was grinning in a satisfied fashion and inspecting her appearance in a mirror which was mounted on a pillar before her. _I wonder how it would look __**on**__ Maka..._

"Soul, you think I should get this for the party?"

"It's up to you."

Maka wore her best pout and sang her highest quality beg, "oh, come on. Give me your opinion, please?"

"Ngh." I groaned. "I think it looks good. Got any shoes to go with it?"

Her index went to her chin in thought. "Uhm...I have some burgundy flats back at the apartment that are pretty close to the color of this dress."

"Nahh, that won't do. Come with me." I took her free hand and brought her to where the shop had a scarce number of pairs of shoes. Scanning the footwear in her size, I pinpointed white dress slip-on sandals with bow-ties on the top strap; they also had slightly elevated heels. I handed her the slippers. "Here. This would go better."

She looked at the gown and back at the shoes. "Soul, where did you learn to pair dress-cloths so well?"

I looked at her like it was something incredibly conspicuous. My stare caused her to become flushed with embarrassment. "I was a rich kid in a family of musicians who had to impress a crowd of aristocrats twenty-four seven. Why wouldn't I know?"

"Oh. Duh. Man, that was pretty obvious, huh?" Maka nervously giggled. "So, I think I should go buy these now." She pranced over to the cashier and got her merchandise checked out.

"That'll be $15.50, ma'am." Maka handed him a twenty dollar bill and received her change. "Thank you. Have a nice day."

"Thank you, you too!" She politely bid the clerk ado and bounced over to me. The girl laced her fingers with mine with her one hand that wasn't clenching onto the plastic bag with a smiley face on it. "Did it take too long?"

I checked my phone. We were here since 4 o'clock- it was now 6 and I didn't even realize it myself. We exited the shop and heard a _jingle_ from the bell atop the door. "Well, we were in there for a solid two hours. Longer than I expected..."

"Oh, oops. Sorry about that, Soul." A sigh escaped her lips. "Well, let's go home now. I gotta start dinner anyway." With a nod, we trudged on to get to the complex. I then felt her slightly shiver.

"What is this? Some kinda cliche movie? Don't tell me you're cold." I said. Truth is, for a day in late spring to be chilly like this was kinda unusual.

Her eyes narrowed at me. "I didn't tell you to give me your jacket or anything. I shivered. Got a problem with that?" She immediately turned her head away with a 'hmph' sound and sent a couple of locks of her hair flying into my face. Completely out of the blue, her steps suddenly became slightly unaligned, then they went drunkly disoriented.

"Maka? What's wrong with you? Hey! Are you okay?" I released her clammy palms and wrapped my arms around her shoulders.

Her eyes half-open, she shoved me away, "I-I'm fine...I just got dizzy there, that's all..." We stopped walking and she regained her balance. As Maka rubbed her temples, I threw my jacket over her back and around her shoulders. "Put your...jacket back on. I don't need it..." In that instant, her knees buckled and she collapsed right into my embrace. Maka's hand fell over her left side- her gunshot wound. Her face crinkled in agony then went soft, and her consciousness slipped away.

"MAKA!" I gave her a small shake, but she didn't respond. Her breathing became calm and rhythmic; I sighed and took her on my back the way I did went she was first shot. "Dammit..." My heart filled with concern and fear. I dragged my feet back to the complex and climbed the flights of stairs to get to our cubicle. When I unlocked the door, I carefully lay Maka on the couch before going back to shut the entrance. After doing so, I went to the kitchen and got a glass of water. Speaking with a soft tone, I caressed my partner's cheek, "Oi...Maka? Wake up..."

She grumbled and rubbed her eyes. While trying to prop herself on her elbow, she winced as the sharp pain of her wound ripped at her. "Ow, ow, ow..." I set her in an upright position and she thanked me. "Damn. What happened to me?"

"Well for one thing, you fainted into my arms. Not cool, Maka..." I meant to just mumble this last part to myself: "you scared the crap outta me..." Turns out I admitted that just a little too loudly.

"I didn't mean to make you worry...I'm sorry." She had one eye closed and held her thumb to her bottom lip. _Dammit all! She's too cute..._

"It's fine. Here." I moved her hand away from her mouth and replaced it with the glass of water. Swaddling her chin in my palm, I tilted the cup back for her to drink. She blushed. "What?" Bringing the beverage back to a standstill, I stared into her dazed, olive eyes.

"This is embarrassing..." Maka complained.

"Quite your whining." I set the glass on the coffee table next to the sofa. "Take the dress off."

"WHAT?"

I sighed. "I gotta check your bandages. You look like the gunshot wound is really bothering you."

"No, I'm okay, really! See?" She rushed to stand but fell back onto the cushions sighing in agony.

I gave her a blunt glare. "Your body sure says you're not. You fainted in the middle of a walk and you're telling me you're fine? Don't be a hard-head and just show me the damn wound."

With an exterminated and flushed side glance, she raised the dress over her head and revealed the spandex shorts and cami underneath. She then raised the tank top to reveal her midriff. I began to unwrap the bandages and after only removing the first layer, blood was seeping through. I stopped in my tracks and dashed for her medical supplies. When I came back, she had her head hanging back on the couch and was slouched somewhat sideways. I rushed to take the soiled wrap off of her and clean the injury. After I finished with that, I went on with the routine of rubbing the antibiotic and winding a fresh new bandage around her waist.

"What's wrong with it?" Maka was obviously not alert when she asked that.

I was really concerned for her sake. "It was bleeding a lot. I think you should try to get some rest here on the couch. I'll cook dinner." Draping her with a blanket that Blair was laying on, I turned to prepare our food. Blair, annoyed, meowed and glared at me with her golden irises to show her frustration of the rude awakening from her catnap. "Sorry, Blair."

It took about half an hour, but once I finished making our supper, I gently woke my partner up. She groaned and sat up carefully. "What'd you make?"

"Chicken noodle soup with rice. Thought you could use some." Handing her her bowl of the food, I took a seat at the end of the couch where Maka's feet were and let her legs lull on my lap. "Feel any better?"

"Mhhm." Her bowl was set on her lap and she blew on a forkful of noodles and slurped it up. "Soul...I just wanted to say...thank you."

I halted the tines of my dining utensil half-way from my soup and mouth. Slowly, I set the fork back into my bowl and stared at her. "For what?"

"For taking care of me...and for being here with me...and..." She paused and breathed in, "...and for letting me meet you."

"I can't really say I _let_ you meet me. Ms. Marie paired us up, so it just kinda happened."

"You could've easily rejected."

"That's true." I stared into my dinner. "In that case...you don't have to thank me for anything. I'm glad I could do all of it." I took another fork of the noodles and rice and then turned the T.V. on to some show about murders.

The rest of supper was quiet except for the narrator talking about a victim's lacerations and such to their neck, chest and abdomen. When Maka and I were both finished, I brought our dishes to the sink and washed them. After that, I came back to the couch to assist Maka to her bed. I shut the television and living room lamp off and took my partner into my arms as if carrying her like a baby, or a princess. _Man, this girl is making think in such an uncool way..._

Without flicking the lights on in her sleeping chamber, I set her down on her mattress and tucked her into her covers. For a moment, I gazed at her as she slumbered then caused the bed to creak as I sat on the edge with my face in my palms. "Maka..." I couldn't think of anything else to say. Fingertips brushed my thigh which startled me.

"Soul, don't go..." Maka pleaded weakly. Even in the dark, I swear you'd be able to see my face redden madly. "Sleep here tonight...don't even say the you'll sleep on the floor...right here. Sleep next to me...please..."

"A-alright..." I sighed and kicked my shoes off. "Wait a sec..." I went to my room and changed into pajama pants. I didn't feel like spending the night in jeans. When I returned, I saw her forest orbs glowing from the moonlight, the only thing that illuminated the moment as she awaited me. "I'm back."

She scooted a tad over to make room for me. Man, this was so awkward...I laid down on top of the comforter. It would just feel...really weird if I was under there with her. But, to my deep discomfort, she urged me to join her beneath the sheets and I couldn't refuse.

Maka wouldn't break her gaze with me. Our eyes were taped, glued and locked together-nothing could shatter the stare.

"Why did you want me to sleep here with you tonight...?" I was curious. Was it because she was delirious? I was sure if I ever did this when she was sane, she'd Maka Chop the shit outta me. Did she really want me here?

"I don't know..." Her eyes shut and she took me into her arms. I didn't move. "I don't know anything anymore..."

"What do you mean?"

"I dunno if I like you...don't like you...think of you as a friend...I just don't know..." Her lips were grazing against my neck as she whispered.

I closed my eyes. "Maka, I really do like you...a lot..." Within seconds of saying that, my hand was holding the back of her head and threading my fingers in her sandy blonde locks.

"I think...I think I like you a lot, too..."_ She _thinks_ she_ _likes me a lot?_

"Then wouldn't it make sense if we da-"

"No..." She calmly broke in. What? She likes me a lot, she's letting me sleep in her bed with her, but she doesn't want to date me? What the hell is wrong with Maka? Did I even take the right girl home?

"Why not?"

"Because I'm scared..."

I could feel warm water trickling down my neck so I pulled away to see from the light of the rock in the night sky that Maka was crying. "Of what?"

"If we end up together...what if we get torn apart like my mom and dad...? I'm scared to..." She gulped and sniffled. "...to let you take my heart..."

Maka...was scared...and so was I...

I'm afraid of letting anyone get too close to my heart...my soul...but I can't keep the girl in my arms away from it...hell, she could see right into it.

"Your soul is tainted, Soul..."

"Huh?"

"Your soul...is tainted with fear, hatred, anguish...and the feeling of being unloved...unappreciated..." So that's what I'm afraid of...her pretending to show me that she cares...when the miserable truth could be that she's just sorry for me... "but in the middle...there's a pure white...like that's the only thing that's keeping you sane...what could that be...?" I didn't want to tell her the promise I made to my mother in fear of chasing her away...

_I'll see you again...when I'm married and have kids of my own...and a beautiful wife...then I'll come to see you again, just as you want._

"I don't know, Maka..." Listening and waiting for an answer, I realized her breathing lightened and fell into a relaxed rhythm-she was asleep. _Well, might as well do the same..._ I glanced over my shoulder at her alarm clock. It was 11:11pm. I swiveled my head back over to the window behind Maka and stared at the chuckling moon.

You know how people say that you should make a wish on 11:11? Well, I didn't need to wish for anything...because the one thing that I've yearned so long for...is right here in my embrace.


	12. Chapter 12

SE: A Tainted Soul, A Pure Promise

Chapter 12: Hype Up

* * *

><p><em>...it made me feel faint. I was woozy and it was getting hard to stand.<em>

"_So does this mean...?"_

_Maka sweetly smiled at me. "Mhhm."_

* * *

><p>When I woke up, Maka was facing away from me and I hugged her around the waist from behind; her delicate hands lay on top of my own. Looking to the window, dawn was just beginning to break and with a peek at the clock, I saw that it was 6am.<p>

_What day was it again?_ "Ngh..." I rolled onto my back with my left arm still under my partner. "Oh, shit, it's Monday." Removing my appendage from beneath Maka's dainty figure, I gently nudged her. "Hey, do you feel alright enough to go to school?"

The groggy girl groaned and stared directly into my irises. Wait...what if she _was_ delirious last night?_ I'm gonna get a billion Maka Chops now...shit, shit, shit! _"What day is it?" She asked.

"Monday."

Her eyes widened and she began to flip out. "What time is it?" Attempting to throw herself to her feet, she cringed onto her back once again and squeaked.

With slight pressure, I held her shoulder down and murmured, "relax, Maka. It's only six. Go take some time to take that rag and bucket bath, okay? Do whatever the hell you do in the morning. I'll cook breakfast and feed Blair."

She was still panicked. "But, you...you cooked yesterday so now it's my turn, a-and it's Monday so we have combat classes and...and-"

_Clap._ I covered Maka's mouth with my hand and hushed her. "Oi. Go. Shower. I'll take care of it. Let's just go see Nygus-sensei to get a doctor's note before we go to Marie-sensei's, okay?" Her hyperventilation lowered to soft, jagged breaths. The frantic shine in her olive eyes faded as my crimsons stared to absorb the alarm and my hand stroked the distress off of her cheeks.

"Okay...okay, I'll go take a shower." I gathered her bathing materials and helped her stand.

Hollering for her, I caught the olive orbs I enjoyed staring into so much just as the girl who owned them started to shut the bathroom door. "Maka?"

"Hmm?" She peeked round through the crack of the doorway.

"I care about you...so don't push yourself if you can't do something, got it?" And with that, I left to make the morning meal. Listening to when my partner would come back to her senses, it took about 30 seconds for Maka to remember how to breathe and continue with her morning routine.

The halls of Shibusen were flooded as we made our way from the clinic to Ms. Marie's. In Maka's right hand, she held a slip from Nygus-sensei that excused her from physical activity for combat classes today; in the other, was my very own hand. I could feel the glares of envious fangirls at the back of my head, back, and directly on my face, though the begrudging stares were mostly centered on Maka.

She obviously sensed the wary lock-ons as well, because what she said next reassured my worrying mind. "Hey, they don't bother me. It shouldn't bother you either, okay, Soul?" My partner flashed me a grin giving me relief that she didn't mind all the negative attention. We arrived to our first period class where Ms. Marie sighed dreamily at the sight of us.

"Ohh, I wish I could find love..." Both mine and Olive Eyes' faces blushed as she said this. A thought flew through my head, _I mean, we're not dating...so this doesn't mean anything...does it?_

As we carefully climbed each stair to get to our row of seats, a cold-truthed note raced across my brain. _We're holding hands. I slept in her bed with her. We went on a goddamned date and she kisses my face all the time. How does this not mean anything?_

Kid, Liz, and Patty had appeared at the doorway at that moment and ran straight toward us like a pack of hyaenas that were half-starved to death for gossip. Great.

"So is it official?" Liz bounced to Maka and went forehead-to-forehead with her. My partner turned away-still holding my hand- and asked her 'is what official?' "Don't play dumb with me, Albarn! Are you and Soul dating? I heard around that you two were strutting down the halls hand-in-hand, and low and behold, look who has their fingers laced together!"

"I have no idea what you mean." Man, Maka knows how to play against the obvious. "We're not dating." Olive Eyes strictly laid down the fact. Though it was the pure truth that we did not actually say we're dating, it was still kinda disappointing to hear.

Patty tilted her head to one side and let out a long 'Eeeehhhh?' before spilling out any real words from her mouth. "But Maka-chaaaan, why are you holding hands with Soul-kun if you aren't dating? Onee-chaaan, does that make sense? I don't get iiiiiit."

Liz backed up from Maka's face and crossed her arms over her chest. "Believe me, Patty, I don't get it either." With that said, the Thompson sisters benched themselves to their assigned placement. My partner went and conjured her book to read and let go of my hand-she sat up against my right shoulder though, which I was content with.

The OCD child whispered in my ear, "so you guys went on that date yesterday?" I nodded. "What happened?" Shrugging him off, he became irritated and punched me in the arm lightly. "Tell me! Before Blackstar comes!" Maka leaned away as a signal to go talk to Kid about it.

"Alright." I turned in his direction and spoke lowly. "We went on the date. After a while, we went for a walk through the park. Then we went to some thrift store and she bought a dress and shoes for the party. While we were walking home, she fainted and I carried her home. I changed her bandages and we ate dinner. Then I brought her to her room..." The chatter and actions of that moment we had in her bed invaded my brain. "She asked me to sleep next to her for the night. In her bed." The young shinigami's golden eyes filled with stars and his jaw dropped.

"Well, did you guys...you know? 'Get busy'?" With a smug, perverted smirk smeared on his face, I grunted at him.

"No. We talked. That's it."

In a tone hinting at dirty thought, he asked, "about whaaat?"

"We talked. That's it. Then she decided to hold my hand through the halls this morning." The deep conversation Maka and I had replayed in my ears. I shook it away, afraid that I might speak my thoughts aloud.

"Alright then. So when will you label it official?" Kid went back to his 'professional' attitude.

"I dunno." And in that moment, Blackstar and Tsubaki entered the class.

"YAHOOOOOOO! SOUL! I SEE YOU! GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE AND TELL YOUR GREAT GOD EVERYTHING!" Damn...today...was gonna be a _long_ day...

"Okay, good Soul. Now, Maka, it's your turn."We had already spent fifth period of this block doing our survival exercises so now Nygus-sensei was teaching us how to wrap ourselves effectively to stop a gaping wound from spilling blood in sixth period. I obviously wasn't gushing my vital bodily fluids, but the nurse made me mummify myself anyway. Maka on the other hand, had an actual injury she could treat.

"Alright, so I hold it here first...then I wrap it around...like this?" Olive Eyes executed the steps Nygus-sensei demonstrated for her perfectly.

"Nicely done as always, Miss Albarn."

The said girl shyly giggled. "I try."

Nygus-sensei closed her only visible eye in praise. I'm sure she would've been smiling under the wraps she had around her face-and not to mention her whole torso. With a glance at her wristwatch, she notified us, "the bell will be ringing any moment now. You can collect your things and wait by the door while I inspect the other students' progresses."

"Thank you, Nygus-sensei!" Maka cheerfully replied while I nodded with a small smile. I picked mine and my partner's pack to stand against the wall and wait for the class dismissal. "You don't have to carry my bag, you know. I'm fine with carrying it, it's not that heavy anyway. Plus, I feel like I'm being a burden to you." Her forest eyes lost their sheen in a frown.

"Maka, you could never be a burden to me." I stared at her not moving a muscle. The shine came back to her orbs after a moment of analyzing the somber appearance in my crimsons. When she came to her senses, the bell rang and once again, her fingers found their way to tie together with mine. _So she'll let us be unofficial...so that if I hurt her...she won't have to break anything off? Well that's stupid...it'll only make things awkward for us. No wait, that's not the case here. She told me she was afraid. But does that mean she's afraid of asking me to make it official? Well, I asked her last night but she refused...maybe she regretted it? Ahh, Hell...this girl is so damn confusing!_

I heard Maka humming to herself as we made our way to Asha-sensei's stealth class. "La...la la la...la la la...till everyone is singing..." I liked it when she hummed like that. Her songbird pitch was pleasant like when the sun rises to shine in your face and welcomes you to a warm morning.

"What song is that?"

"You know this song. You're the one who showed it to me. 'If It Means A Lot To You'?" Her curious irises met mine. I can't believe it...she actually liked the song. When I broke out in a hysterical chuckle, it caused the girl's brows to furrow. "What? Why are you laughing at me?"

Staring back at her with watery eyes from the outburst, I spoke in a falsetto, "you're taste in music is just so bad, I didn't think you'd like it!" Trying to hold back any further snickering, I made a 'pfft' noise and cracked up again. The two words you'd never want to hear in the same sentence left my partner's lips and pierced my eardrums.

"MAKA CHOP!" The flustered girl smashed my skull into the tiles of Ms. Asha's class. The last warning bell shouted down the Shibusen halls and the door was shut; Maka peeled me off of the ground and took my hand to drag me to sit over on the floor and away from the gate. Envy-swollen eyes glared in our direction as we knelt down for the lecture still not breaking our bound palms. _Hmm...maybe I can learn to out-stealth Maka's surprise Maka Chops...and maybe these stupid glares..._

The last bell of the day rang and we booked it out of Dr. Stein's before he could get the chance to threaten a dissection upon our bodies. Maka and I walked around to the backlot locked together like we've been all day to get my bike. We cruised up to the bottom of the Shibusen stairs and met with the whole gang-including the new addition, Crona.

Some people wonder why I allowed her to be a companion of mine. They think that I should hold a grudge against the toothpick of a girl, but I bear no hard feelings toward her. I mean, it wasn't her fault that her twisted mom drugged her. Crona was afraid of her own mother so she did what she had to. Besides, what's done is done, and I can't get rid of the scar. The others thought the same, so that was the end of it.

"So,Crona, how do you like the academy so far? You got to look around today, right?" Maka, legs still split around behind me on the motorcycle, asked the jumpy girl.

Crona was slightly startled by the sudden conversation. "O-oh, yea. It's a big school...I don't know i-if I can deal with it..."

My partner giggled. "You'll be fine. It takes some getting used to." I gave Crona a small, reassuring grin at the moment Maka nudged me. "Oh, so you're coming to Kid's party, right Crona?"

"Uh, well, I-I don't know. S-should I go? A-am I allowed?"

Kid broke in, "of course! You're a friend."

"Ooo! Ooo! Kid-kuuuunnn! I have an idea!" Patty shouted, filled with glee. "You should take Onee-chan! You said yourself, Onee-chan! You told me you wanted to go with Kid-kun!"

The older Thompson blushed madly. "Wha-what? Pfft, I didn't say anything like that! I-I'm pretty sure _you_ said that! No way, not me." By the clueless look on Patty's face, it was obvious that Liz was lying.

A slight tint of pink appeared on Kid's cheeks. "Liz, would you like to be my date?" Speechless and embarrassed, the flushed Thompson nodded her head slowly. "Okay then, who will Patty go with?"

The jubilant girl giggled insanely and linked her arm around Crona's. "I'll go with Crona-chan! I'm dress her up all pretty and everything!" The nervous wreck looked somewhat panicked, yet relieved-if that was possible. "Do you like short dresses or long dresses, Crona-chan?"

"Uh...uh...uahh..." Her pinkish-purplish haired head swiveled to and fro the directions of each of our faces. "We-well, I like lo-long dresses better...it covers me up."

"Let's show off those legs at the party then! I'm gonna find you the CUTIEST dress!" Patty sang.

Crona cried out, "n-no! Don't do that! I can't deal with short dresses! I like the long ones like this gown I wear! D-don't make me wear a short one!"

The youngest Thompson released her grip around Crona's arm and jumped around on one foot. "Come oooooon, Crona-chaaaan! You'll look so good in a short dress!"

Liz cut into the conversation. "Now, Sis, you'll make her cry."

That only made the bubbly girl cackle. "Crona-chaaan! Don't be a baby! Be like Onee-chan! She's the bravest, strongest girl I know!" With declaring that statement, a determined expression crossed the younger sister's face.

Nervous laughs escaped the elder sibling. "I wouldn't say that I'm the bravest...or strongest...hehehe..."

"Oh, Onee-chan, look at you being all sheepish!" Patty smacked her hand on her sister's back a couple of times while giggling herself away.

"Well, I think that we should get going now." Tsubaki interrupted. "Look. Half the students are gone already and here we still are!" A modest grin was flashed and she grabbed Blackstar's wrist. "See you guys tomorrow!"

"BOW DOWN TO YOUR GREAT GOD AS I LEAVE TO RAIN MY GLORY ELSEWHERE! KYAHAHAHAHA!" Everyone mumbled 'whatever' to the remark the arrogant boy chanted. As they sauntered off, I swore that I could see Blackstar's hand grope the cammelia's rear.

Liz seemed to take notice of the perverted action the Big Star made toward Tsubaki. It was consoling to know that I wasn't just imagining it. "Hey, did you see that? Do you think Tsubaki and Blackstar have something going on?"

"What happened? What did Blackstar do?" Kid impeded with sudden interest.

Not wanting to be a part of their gossip circle, Maka and I said our farewells to the rest of the group and rode off. My partner's arms took their spot around my waist and we zoomed away to our apartment.

"So...not to be all gossipy or anything, but what _did_ Blackstar do?" Maka, with nothing but pure curiosity embedded in her voice.

"Eh..." I said. Olive Eyes huffed into my ear, irritated, and stayed quiet the rest of the ride. When we had finally arrived at our destination, I eased my passenger to the ground and led the way to the innards of the complex. The both of us climbed to the top of the steps and made our way down to the end of the hall where the door to our apartment was. Bobbling to get my key, I finally managed to get us into the cubicle. Maka went to the kitchen to get a glass of water and I threw myself on the couch to greet Blair and watch some T.V. "Oi, Maka?"

"What?" She snapped. I waited until she brought the water to her lips.

"Blackstar grabbed Tsubaki's ass. That's what I saw." Within seconds of admitting that, my astonished roommate blasted the aqua from her mouth.

"He _what_...?"

"Blackstar. He grabbed Tsubaki's ass." I clarified.

Jaw-dropped and wide-eyed, Maka squeaked, "yea, that's what I thought you said." She took another sip of her water and tossed the rest out into the sink. She then sauntered over and cuddled up to me on the sofa; throwing my arm around her, I slowly worked my way down her shoulder, then her down her side and her waist. Just before I could palm her bottom, "MAKA CHOP!" A book was mashed together with my skull.

"Ow! Damn, I'm sorry." I grunted and set my hand down on her hip, which for sure wasn't a danger zone. To my discontent, Maka slid my hand off of her side and onto her tush. "What the-! If you were gonna let me do that anyway, why the hell would you Maka Chop me?" Her arms immersed me in their caress and she poked her tongue out to produce a flatulence noise from her mouth. "So not cool..." We continued to observe the cartoons flickering on the screen before us.

*Saturday*

"Maka! Hurry up! Quit hogging the bathroom!" I yelled. Dressed in standard black and white, my tie hung limp around my neck and nowhere near being knotted.

A muffled grunt was aimed at my presence. "Wait. I'm almost done."

My face morphed into a deep, displeased grimace and I retorted, "you said that same thing, what, twenty minutes ago? You're not almost done." I leaned on the door and jammed my fists into my pants pockets. Listening to the faint breath coming from the girl on the other side of the door, I realized that my own inhalation was matched with hers.

Then something in my chest...something like a...

_pull._

"...the fu...?" At the moment of my astonished reaction, the door was opened and I fell into Maka but caught myself before I could knock her over.

She was holding one palm to her chest and another on the door handle; her delicate face was twisted in a confused visage then suddenly relaxed into scowl. "I'm done." When I looked her over, my vocal chords shut down. The way the fabric bedecked her dainty figure was flawless; she may be flat as a board, but that dress was amazing on her. Maka's hair was semi-pigtailed with most of her hair hanging around her shoulders. The twin-tails were loosely curled. "That pull...are they...?" A whisper from Maka's lips broke my daze and caused me to bring my eyes to a deadlock with hers.

"Wait, what?"

"Oh nothing. You, uh, tie your tie. I'll go touch up in my room." She skipped off barefoot and shut her bedroom door.

Upon arrival with Crona trailing nervously behind us, Maka and I were greeted by the hosting trio at the entrance of the Shinigami mansion. Following up after us were the ninja duo with the suspicious, unofficial sexual affair.

"Blackstar...why can't you ever..." Kid complained. "Look at this! Your jacket is unbuttoned and hanging off of your shoulder...shoes are untied...your tie is just drooping around your neck! Good Lord...you're so asymmetrical!" The OCD boy teared up and fell to his knees in defeat.

Mr. "Big Star" threw back his blue-haired head in a hysterical cackle. "KYAHAHAHAHAHAHA! The great Blackstar can dress however he wants! He's amazing! He's GOD!" With the usual third-person speech leaking from his mouth, we all shamefully sighed at his arrogance.

Still stagnate at the gate to the villa, we observed as a few more couples sauntering into the party arm-in-arm and smiles sheered across their cheeks. As I peered into the commotion going about in the home, I screamed throughout my mind, _these are all __**Kid's**__ friends? How the...? Maybe they're just random students from the Academy._ My baffled thoughts were soon put to rest when the young Shinigami declared that yes, all these people _are_ his friends.

A clearing throat was heard from outside of my daze. "Well!" Then, dainty arms had suddenly squeezed around my waist, "let's go inside and party!" The curls that charmingly flowed down Maka's head bounced when she giggled and then she scurried herself and I into the chaotic enjoyment. The others raced right behind us and we dispersed into the crowd, ready to indulge in the night ahead.


	13. Chapter 13

***Note- okay, well I finally caught up with the rest of the chapters that I've written, so I am just now working on the 14th one~! Enjoy the catch-up uploads. Sorry, now you'll have to wait for each update. ._."**

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><p>SE: A Tainted Soul, A Pure Promise<p>

Chapter 13: Party Meets Noah

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><p><em>...it made me feel faint. I was woozy and it was getting hard to stand.<em>

"_So does this mean...?"_

_Maka sweetly smiled at me. "Mhhm."_

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><p>The notes of the various instruments resonated the jazz tune throughout the whole estate. With Maka's thin arm linked at the inner elbow with mine, the night was off to a perfect start. Only, there was one problem...I'm not so much a fan of huge social events like this. Subtle questions get asked, and sooner or later, they get personal-and I don't enjoy sharing my personal issues with people. Even sharing my private problems with Maka isn't really enjoyable, but the way she looks at me turns me into a fountain of truth...and that's really not cool.<p>

"Hey, Soul, wanna dance?" familiar, eager, olive eyes turned their focus on me.

With a harsh glare, my crimson orbs pierced the girl's gleam. "No way." Unwrapping my arm from hers, I stuffed my fists into my pants' pockets and walked out the nearest door. Where I was led to was an elegant balcony where the evening air of late spring made its way into my lungs. Though I didn't bother to look back, I could still manage to feel Olive Eyes boring her glare into my snowy hair.

It was about an hour later of standing over the bars of the terrace when I sensed my partner behind me. I was about ready to catch a book with my skull but instead met an expression upon her delicate face that softened my cold outer shell. Maka's brows were twisted into a pained furrow, her globes lacked that shine and confident vibe, and her lips were curled into a frown.

"Soul?"

"Oi, what's wrong with you?" I pivoted myself to face her.

She walked over. Messing with her black choker a little, she spoke, "why won't you dance with me? Look at all the other people. They're all out there on the floor and we're out here." Her absent-minded fidgeting fingers moved to her wrist where she fiddled with her charcoal bracelet. "Come on, I hear that dancing strengthens the bond between partners."

I sighed and looked to the empty streets below. The road lamps were lit and gave a calm ambience. "It's not my thing."

"Oh, really? I hadn't noticed." Maka's sarcastic tone caused me to grunt at her. She looked away and exhaled which relinquished her fury. "Well then, why don't we go to the food table and eat?"

"Eh, don't feel like waiting to get any," I immediately shot back. Again, an irritated breath escaped her lips, thus making her turn her eyes away from me. "Anyway..."

The anger steaming off of the girl could be felt from where I stood. She was staring up at the chuckling moon, chin in hand and elbows leaning onto the balcony railing. "hmm?" Maka didn't take her eyes off of the sky rock.

"You...you like me...a lot, don't you?"

It looked like she stopped breathing. A new heat came off of her body; no, it wasn't fury, but more like humiliation. Her rigid stance turned to gelatin and she turned herself to confront me face-to-face. "Why are you asking that?"

I glared. "Answer the question."

"You idiot! You're so blind! You...you don't see it i-in the way I act?" Maka's face flushed to a deep red.

"Answer. Yes...or no." My nonchalant attitude was clearly pissing her off.

She slapped her hands to her face as a shield from my gaze and she answered with a smothered volume. "Yes."

Cupping my hand around my ear, I leaned forward. "What's that?"

Her position was unmoving when I was given a replied; she murmured again, "yes, I like you! A lot!" Veering out closer to her with my palm still around my ear, I said 'still can't hear you'. My partner removed her hands from her face and hollered out, "MAKA CHOP!" The text that I was to be assaulted with was instinctively caught in the midst of the swing. Her thin wrist was restrained in my fist and I smirked at her.

"Not this time, Tiny Tits."

"Soul...you're an asshole." Her predator's posture relaxed into a slouch. "And to answer you question, yes, I like you, Soul. I like you a lot. Happy? I said it three goddamned times." A scowl twisted onto her face while a toothy grin morphed onto mine.

"And I heard all of it."

With a foreseen Maka Chop, I endured the attack and watched the smoke emitting from my bashed dome dissipate into the air. "Now it's your turn to play the obvious game. Do you like me, Soul?"

"Cool guys like me don't go for girls with such flat chests like you," her face reddened in fury and another one of her deadly assaults inflicted with her mysterious book was coming my way. "But in this case, since you're the coolest partner ever, your flat chest doesn't bother me." I smirked and watched her face go from total rage to a softer, toothless grin.

"And I wonder why that doesn't make me furious..." Maka laughed at herself. "You just called me flat, and I didn't even Maka Chop you. I swear, Soul, you see what you do to me?"

Leaning back onto the paling of the balcony, I sighed into the evening's atmosphere. "Well, that's a good thing for me. I'm gonna get brain damage if you keep up with those Chops of yours." Maka gave me a slight nudge and giggled. "But in all seriousness, I really do like you a lot, Maka. And I know you're scared that we might end up like your parents if we dated, so I'm willing to wait til you're ready."

_Pull._

At the moment I instinctively brought my hand to the center of my chest, Maka did as well. I met my partner's olive eyed gaze and stood there dumbfounded. Then, the sandy blonde waltzed over and embraced me. Following along with the gesture, I absorbed the girl's petite figure in my arms and rested my chin on the top of her head while her peachy cheek settled onto my chest. Maka's hands slowly glided up around my shoulders and onto my neck. Pulling away to see what she was up to, my crimson eyes met her moonlit olives. She looked absolutely amazing; before I knew it, my face was pulled down to hers. Then, our lips timidly touched. It was quick, but it was what I longed for so long. With more confidence, we once again, pressed into a kiss; this time, her lips molded together with mine and we became one. We got a little bit of movement and deepened the moment of the passion.

That's when I heard something inside my head..._clink._

We separated ourselves and locked our stare. I spoke first, "did you hear something...?"

Maka shut her eyes and nodded. I pried further to see if she knew what it was, but no words escaped her. She just leaned forward on her toes again and brought her lips to mine; now that the adrenaline and shock disappeared, the tenderness of her against me finally sunk in and it made me feel faint. I was woozy and it was getting hard to stand. It's a good thing I'm leaning up against these rails.

"So does this mean...?" I said after we broke the kiss to gaze at each other. "C-can we...be together?"

Maka sweetly smiled at me. "Mhhm." Her hands dropped to around my waist and her dainty figure fit adjacent to me flawlessly. A realizing whisper shot out of Maka's mouth, "'a sound soul dwells within a sound mind and a sound body'...how could I forget? Soul, our souls resonated. That only happens if...if our bond with each other is strong...or..." My parter's astonished voice trailed off.

"Or...?" I prompted, but received nothing more than a deeply flushed Maka.

I have a guess as to what that 'or' might be...

love.

And I think that...I may actually be in love with this girl.

When Maka and I finally re-entered the gathering, we were greeted to screams and hysteria. Then suddenly, a blatant boom echoed through the mansion followed by numerous shrieks and gasps. Alarm rapidly raced through my veins and I searched for the source of the trauma alongside my partner. We came across Kid flailing his arms wildly in an attempt to capture and calm the minds of the frantic guests.

"Dammit, Kid! What the hell is going on here?" I yelled.

As the OCD child tried to tame the crowd, he answered, "A gang decided to crash the party!"

Maka cut in, "what? Who are they? I didn't even know there was a gang in Shibusen, let alone Death City!" The hostile girl reached up her dress and removed her hidden pistol from the clip holster wrapped around her thigh. "What do you think they want?"

"I doubt they're from Shibusen. I've never seen them before." Kid calmly, yet darkly replied. "Except...that blonde guy...who looks like a priest..."

The assumed leader ripped through the swarm. "Hello everyone. I'm Noah. And this is my gang, also named 're all our hostages now." The mocha-skinned man tipped his plaid military cap by the two rings that pierced through the left side of the brim. He held all the party-goers at gun-point and made everyone kneel down. "Now, where's the valuable one...? Ahh, there you are." Zeroing in on the boy with the three white streaks in his hair, the gang leader smirked. A terrifying, serene sigh escaped him, "now everyone stay down." All the fearful visitors stayed put with their faces to the floor and shudders rolling down their backs.

I tore my gun from the inner pocket of my jacket and aimed at the approaching man. "No way! Get the hell outta here! You're not touching Kid!" Something eye-opening sped behind me. _Is that a...a clown? _The thing put me into a head lock and tripped me to knocked me to the ground. "Get off!" I struggled against the freak but I couldn't break loose. A spiky, ginger-haired man wielding a chainsaw took Maka into his restrain causing her to kick and scream at the offender who appeared drunk and lethal. Next, a thin, awkward-looking guy biting his top lip took Kid by the arms and shoved him away to the door and awaited Noah to finish his business.

"We'll be taking the young Shinigami. Send a message to Lord Death for me. If he wants his son back, he'll needa pay up. How much is undetermined at the moment, so you'll be receiving a phone call in several days. Until then, your little friend is mine. Have a good evening." He turned to go; my blood was boiling as I tried to escape the grasp of the clown once more, but failing miserably. "Giriko, Clown, let them go. We'll be off now. Justin, I need you to make sure no curious cat follows us."

The two beings holding Maka and I retreated quickly to their captain and were shielded by a young boy of about seventeen who was dressed as a church minister in black and white. He wielded what appeared to be miniature guillotine blades about his arms. His blue eyes pierced my crimsons and music blasted through the earbuds that represented Shinigami-sama's mask. Wait, wasn't this guy a Deathscythe? The youngest one...what was he doing affiliating himself with this gang?

"KID! KIIIIIIID!" Liz appeared from a nearby hallway with duct-tape dangling off of her wrists and ankles. Her eyes were beginning to water and she frantically raced to the door. "Where did he go? Who was that? What's going on?" Listening to Liz's voice shake was unsettling. She wasn't usually like this; she held strong and only broke down to fear if it came to paranormal stuff or something. But hearing her nearing a sob could just rip any of us apart.

"There, there, Onee-chan. Kid-kun will be alright. He can fight big bad guys easy! You know that, Sis!" Patty lightly laid her hand on her older sister's shoulder trying to comfort her. After a couple minutes of her nervous break-down, the older Thompson's tears subsided and she stood up straight. "AHAHH~! There ya go, Onee-chan! That's the way to do it! Be strong like Kid-kun! You know he'll be strong for you and me. But definitely you." A goofy giggle left the young sister and brought a blush the the elder sibling's cheeks.

With a sniffle, Liz asked, "now what do we do?"

Blackstar and Tsubaki came dashing our way. "I'M GONNA FIND THIS NOAH GUY AND BEAT THE CRAP OUTTA HIM! NO ONE KIDNAPS MY FRIENDS AND GETS AWAY WITH IT!" The Big Star bursted with anger; don't get me wrong, we were all furious, but Blackstar can't conceal it as well as everyone else can.

"We'll all pitch in to help find Kid-kun! Don't worry Liz, we'll get our friend and your boyfriend back in no time!" Tsubaki tried to lighten up the situation, which somewhat worked, but also deepened the flush upon Liz's embarrassed face.

"H-he's not my boyfriend..." The said Thompson stuttered.

"What? Then why did I see you two kiss in his room earlier?" Blackstar asked, curious. That brought all of our eyes onto Liz. It seemed as though her whole body turned red with humiliation.

"Wh-what were you doing snooping around the mansion?"

Patty giggled. "He wasn't snooping, Onee-chan! We were playing hide-and-seek~!"

Liz let out a pathetic groan. "Fine, we kissed. But hey! You've been grabbing Tsubaki's ass everyday of this week every time school was let out and you started walking home! What's that about?"

_What's this? Kid is kidnapped...or shall I say __**self**__-napped...? ACK! This is no time to be making puns! Ugh, our friend is kidnapped and now we're having a confession session? _"Oh, I guess we forgot to tell you guys! Blackstar and I have been dating since last Saturday! I told him to lay low for a while, which he did a good job at, until he started to, well, grope my rear in public..." Tsubaki's cheeks tinted with a slight rosy hue.

"AND NOW THAT THE CAT IS OUT OF THE BAG, I'M DATING TSUBAKI NAKATSUKASA AND I'M THE HAPPIEST AND MOST GLORIOUS STAR ON EARTH!" Blackstar screamed through the estate.

"I think I have you beat with that happiness, Blackstar." I interrupted his shine. "Maka and I made it official on the balcony before..." I cut myself off reminiscing on the tragic event that took place only moments ago. "Uh...anyway, a cool guy like me deserves a cool girl like Maka."

Liz was grieving on a chair close by with her face in her palms. She was such a wreck, the gossip wasn't even getting to her. Now _that _definitely shows that something is wrong...by now, she'd be firing questions like a machine gun. "Guys, is this really the time to be talking about being happy?"

"Sorry." We all chanted at the same time.

Tsubaki waltzed over and knelt next to Liz giving her a sympathetic pat on the back. "We can't do much now, Liz-chan. We can only wait for the call and hope for the safety of Kid-kun." Her attention spread to the whole group. "Let's go see Shinigami-sama and tell him what happened." With a nod of agreement from all of us, we flew off to Shibusen.

Maka's eyes widened and she spoke, "where's Crona?" My newly-labeled girlfriend ran back into the estate as guests made their way out. In a few moments, the girl was back panting and empty handed. She glided to my bike and paused staring at an object that caught her eye.

I walked over and took a peek at what had captured her attention. It was a photograph of her and Crona smiling at the camera from a party that Kid had thrown a while back. She flipped the paper over and saw there was a note attached. The only thing that was written was the letter 'M' in extravagant cursive. "An...an 'M'? Could that mean...?" I muttered.

My partner took in a sharp breath and her eyes widened more-if that was possible. "Medusa."

The rest of the group eventually scurried over to see what the drama was.

"What's going on?" Tsubaki asked.

Liz and Patty cocked their heads to one side. "What's that?"

"LET THE GREAT BLACKSTAR SEE THAT PAPER!"

As if there wasn't enough tension going on tonight. Why was everything happening so fast? First we had to deal with Medusa. We thought she was dead this whole time. We thought that Stein and Spirit had killed her! But with this...this departing note with the letter 'M' etched into it, does that mean she's alive? What the hell was going on?

So that evening, with two sobbing girls and a clique of heavyhearted companions, two of our friends disappeared into the night, and we have no clue where they are...this isn't cool...this isn't cool _at all_...


	14. Chapter 14

***Note: You know the stalker girl in the SE manga? Yea, that's who Samata is. in Bangali, Samata means stalker. (I looked it up on google translate...xD) It _sounds_ like a name, right?~ XD alright, well enough rambling. Enjoy!~ **

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><p>SE: A Tainted Soul, A Pure Promise<p>

Chapter 14: Exposed

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><p>"<em>Hey, Cutie, watch out...or someone's gonna get hurt...one day..." It was that girl from before...<em>

_Maka's stalker...was joining Noah..._

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><p>"Hmm...this is quite the problem." Lord Death stated while steadying his hand to his mask as if there were a chin there to caress. "What do you suppose we do?"<p>

Liz bawled out, "Shinigami-sama! This is why we came to you! We have no idea what to do, we really don't! Please, Lord Death, he's your son!"

"I'm sorry, Liz-chan, but I'm not entirely sure how I can help. This is the first time I've ever heard of this Moses or Noah guy you kids are talking about."

Maka interceded, "it's Noah, sir. And it isn't just one guy; Noah is a whole gang. They had a clown, some guy with a chainsaw named Giriko, Justin Law the Deathscythe, some awkward-looking guy, and his name wasn't mentioned, who was told to take Kid away. And then there was the leader, Noah himself." Lord Death made an affirming 'mhhm' sound and prompted Maka to continue. "Shinigami-sama...Crona...Crona also went missing. I think...I think I know who took her." The girl pulled out the picture of her and Crona and flipped it over to the back to reveal the 'M' stamped onto it. "Medusa."

"No way! That's not possible! I'm sure Stein and I killed her!" Spirit bursted in astonishment as he stood at the Shinigami's side.

"You sure about that, Papa? Why else would she leave? Why else would there be a goddamned 'M' on the back of this card?" Maka countered.

"Let's all calm down here and focus on the problems we have. We're all stressed, but we have to come to terms." Shinigami-sama cooed. "Now we know Noah is a gang here in Death City but we don't know for sure how long they've been here. One of our own, Deathscythe Justin Law was there as a member of the group according to Maka."

"Don't forget Crona-chan is gone too~!" Patty giggled.

"That's right. She's missing too. And we have our little hint here with the picture. We obviously wanna point the blame at Medusa, but we can't be sure cuz we thought Dr. Stein and Spirit had killed her."Lord Death reviewed.

Blackstar screamed through the Death Room. "WE ALREADY KNOW THIS! LET'S GO FIND THAT BITCH MEDUSA AND THAT BASTARD NOAH AND KICK SOME ASS!"

"Now, hold on, Blackstar. Where do you think you're gonna find Kid and Crona? We have no leads as to where their location can be, so how do you expect to beat anyone up?" Tsubaki reasoned. Obviously, with rage boiling through the Big Star's tiny brain filled with thoughts of surpassing God, there was no way that the egoistic boy would take that as an answer.

So he spit out his own ridiculous solution. "I'LL TEAR DOWN EVERYTHING UNTIL WE FIND THEM! AND I'LL DO IT WHILE SURPASSING GOD!" There he goes again...

"How about we make you guys a group and go after Crona and Kid? You are some of the elite students here at Shibusen, after all." Shinigami-sama suggested.

"But of course, I'm number one." Blackstar announced.

I expected a Maka Chop for Blackstar, but none came his way. The sandy-blonde girl just landed on her knees and whimpered into her palms. "How are we gonna find them...?" After a moment of inward hiccups and sobs, she gasped which caused alarm to all of us. "No, no, don't pay any attention to me...just, try to think of something we can do."

Professor Stein then entered the room. "Well, we got an untraceable call from Noah. They said they still haven't quite summed up the ransom they want so they're going to think it over within a week's time. Until then, we won't know where Kid is." The man lit a cigarette and dragged in a puff.

Liz sulked. "Oh...Kid..." Patty, once again, came to her sister's side to comfort her. Even the bubbly girl's attitude seemed to go a little cold and empty.

Lord Death clapped his hands together. "Let's focus here. We can inform Kim Diehl and Jaqueline O. Lantern Dupre, Ox Ford and Harvar D. Eclair, and Kirikou Rung and Pot of Fire and Pot of Thunder to join. They are also some of the elite here at the Academy."

I pulled Maka aside to collogue with her as the rest of the group contemplated how to organize the group. "Oi, I know that you're scheming something. What is it?"

She stared wide-eyed directly into my crimsons. "I-I know exactly how we can find Kid and Crona," she whispered. "But I can't tell the rest of them...Soul, I can't do it..."

"Tell _me_. You _know_ you can tell me anything and my lips will be sealed if you don't want me to share it with anyone." I coaxed her for the information.

She sighed and let her eyes calm, though I could feel the worry radiating from her body. "Soul Perception."

That's right...! She could see souls when even when someone is alive!

"Then let's start looking for them!" I exclaimed with low audibility. "The sooner, the better, don't you think?"

"Soul, I...we can't do it here!" Maka, alarmed, said just a little too loudly. Noticing the attention thrown on her, she lowered her voice, "no one but my Papa, Mama, you and I know about it. No one else. Not even Tsubaki..."

Spirit walked over. "You can't do _what_ here?" He glared at me and so I did the same. "Ey, Soul, don't you dare think about touching my Maka. I'LL. KILL. YOU." Really? He's honestly going to start this?

"Oi, perv! I can do what I want but I won't do anything she doesn't want. I won't _cheat_ on her, for example, because Maka won't want that and I'm not an uncool guy like you." I sourly shot at him.

The blood-red headed man grabbed my shoulders but automatically got a Maka Chop right between the eyes. "Don't touch my _boyfriend_, Papa." She went overboard with the emphasis on 'boyfriend', but I thought that it was hilarious. Man...Maka really is the coolest partner and girlfriend a guy could ever have.

"HE'S YOUR BOYFRIEND?" The raging Deathscythe blurted. I swear, the man was breathing fire through his nostrils. "WHEN THE HELL DID THIS HAPPEN? DID YOU _SLEEP_ WITH HIM, MAKA? IF YOU LOST YOUR VIRGINITY TO _THIS_ CHUMP, I'M GONNA KILL HIM!"

"MAKA CHOP!" After the ballistic man's skull greeted the Webster, his face then greeted the ground; Maka continued to speak, "in fact, yes, I did sleep with Soul."

_What?_ I gulped.

"Maka, what the hell are you ta-" with a finger to my lips, she hushed me and winked.

"WOAH, WOAH, WOAH! SOUL, WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL YOU'RE GOD THAT YOU SLEPT WITH MAKA? GETTING IT IN BEFORE YOU GUYS EVEN DATE? NICE, BRO!" Blackstar cawed.

Spirit wrapped his fingers around my throat. "I. WILL. KILL. YOU! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO MY MAKA?"

"He slept with me, Papa. No, he did not _make love_ to me, he slept with me. You know? Like..._next_ to me?" Maka said nonchalantly. "And...we just started dated earlier this evening."

"AHHHHCK! HE STILL TOUCHED YOU, MAKA! AND YOU SLEPT WITH EACH OTHER EVEN THOUGH YOU'RE NOT TOGETHER?" Spirit turned his hostility in my direction.

"MAKAAAAAA CHOP!" Olive Eyes' book landed on her fathers cranium and caused a fountain of blood to spout from the assaulted area. "Anywho, it's getting quite late. I think we should all go home and have some time to process tonight." The girl used her best acting to conceal the sliver of hope that gleamed in her eyes from her plan to find our missing companions.

Then, Spirit yelled, "MAKA!" The said girl turned and hissed a 'what?' "I think I know how we can get them back! I just remembered! You have Soul Perception!" With a goofy smile, the man was obviously expecting a cheerful daughter rather than a furious, fearful girl who was just about to knock him unconscious with her dictionary.

"Soul Perception?" The whole group, including Shinigami-sama, gasped in wonder. Except for Dr. Stein; he just stood there turning the screw in his head and smoked his tobacco away.

"N-n-no! Papa doesn't know what he's talking about! D-don't listen to him!" Maka stuttered. Her damned jackass, sad excuse for a father had to go and reveal her secret. And after going through the trouble of keeping it low profile through since she found out about it...

"So that's why the great Blackstar always got Maka Chopped when trying to sneak up behind you..." The Big Star conversed with himself. He then puffed out his chest and glinted a wide, pride-swelled grin. "HEY, MAKA! TELL ME WHAT MY GREAT SOUL LOOKS LIKE."

With a disappointed sigh and an exhausted slouch, Maka answered bitterly. "arrogant and air-headed." She grabbed my hand and began stomp away. "Let's go home, Soul."

Shinigami-sama asked, "say, Deathscythe~? Could Maka have been keeping that a secret perhaps? She obviously does not look pleased with you blurting it out."

Spirit lifted his injured skull and slapped his forehead. "DAMMIIIIIIIIIT! MAKA! DADDY LOVES YOU! HE DIDN'T MEAN TO GIVE AWAY YOUR SECRETS! I'M SORRY, I'M SORRY, I'M SORRY!" The man rolled around on the floor bawling his cerulean eyes out. "Please don't hate me, Makaaaaaaa! Papa loves youuuuu!"

With a snort, she turned on the heel, and with her hand in mine, as did I.

Then, coming out of a thought-filled daze, Dr. Stein jumped into the tense atmosphere, "why don't we call the group Spartoi, eh?"

Everyone stared at him as if to say,_ 'you're really going to say something like that_ _**now**__?'_

When we arrived back at the apartment, Maka plopped onto the couch as I changed Blair's water and afterward, crashed down onto the empty seat next to her.

"Sooo...?" I asked. "Are you gonna...?"

While she was staring off into space, suddenly, Maka's eyes teared up. "Please, Soul...I don't want to do it right now..." she cried out. "Let's start looking tomorrow... But for now, let's hit the hay...can I sleep in your room with you tonight?"

"What's cool with you is cool with me." I answered. Maka gave the best smile she could conjure from the anguish in her soul and got up to change. I went off to my own cubicle and stripped down to just my boxers then pulled on some sweats. Just as I was about to send a beater over my head, Maka caught me in her nightgown at the doorway.

"Stop right there. You don't need the shirt." With a shrug, I tossed the clothing behind me and stood on the wood-paneled floor as Maka crossed to stand toe-to-toe with me. She had reddened, watery, forest eyes-which were from the drama of tonight-when she turned her orbs' focus to gaze at me. Her delicate right hand placed itself on the scar from Crona, and she used her index to trace it from my left shoulder to my right hip. "We'll find them, right, Soul?"

"Yes, of course." I caressed her cheek and let one of her tears slip onto my palm. Wiping her face of the liquid pain, I held her close. "How about we head on over to the bed, eh?" I felt her nod on my chest so I swept her off her feet bridal-style and tucked her in next to me. When I killed the lights, her arms made their way around the back of my neck and then I felt her shudder. My hand rubbed her back as she cried her silent sobs into the crook of my neck, sniffling every so often. The tears finally wore her out after about fifteen minutes when her breathing lightened and gained rhythm. My hand still rubbed her back, but I soon fell victim to slumber with mixed feelings of love, happiness, anguish and fear.

Maka and I were out in the courtyard of the complex just hours after dawn had arised. She was using her ability to drag the presence of Kid's soul out first.

"God dammit...my focus keeps breaking after 50 meters..." Maka hissed. "And I still can't find him...where the hell did they take him?"

"Take it easy." I warned.

She looked at me with stressed olive eyes and she huffed. "I can't, Soul! Not with everything going on so fast-" the frantic girl cut herself off. "...who...?"

I got to my feet in a flash and crossed the grass to where Maka stood. "What is it?"

The said girl called out, "who's there?"

"What are you talking about, Maka? What kind of soul are you sensing?"

"It's...it's a girl. She's got a creepy vibe coming off of her..." The alert sandy-blonde cautiously stalked over to one of the garbage cans and pulled her gun out from the waistband of her skirt. She then jerked the bin's lid off and cocked her pistol at the hiding offender. "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?"

A girl with curled, pink pigtails poked her head out like a gopher. She surrendered her hands and yelped, "I'm innocent! Don't shoot! I just have a message for Soul-sempai!"

"What do you want?" I coldly answered. "And who are you?"

The girl only winked at me and bounced her curls. "The name's Samata. And you're Soul Eater...Evans."

Maka lit on fire with fury and held the gun to Samata's temple. "How the hell do you know who he is? What do you want from us?"

"Oh, I only wanted to give Soul-sempai this here letter." The pink-haired girl pulled a folded slip of paper from within her shirt. "Sempai?"

I snatched the note from her and glared into Samata's creepy, smiling face. "Get outta here, whoever the hell you are. Or we'll have to report you as a suspicious person to Shibusen."

"Oh, oopsie, I'm sorry. I didn't know I was offending you guys. Well, Maka Albarn, if you'll excuse me." She leaped from the trash can and skipped away, Maka still holding the gun at her until she disappeared around the corner of a building.

I came up behind Maka and lowered her tense arms. She turned to me and asked, "so what does the note say?"

Unfolding the slip, I read the message from Samata.

**Maka doesn't belong with you, Soul-sempai.** -**Samata 3**

"What the hell?" I crumpled the piece of paper and threw it to the ground only for Maka to pick it up, read it, and do the same as I did.

"Who does this chic think she's screwing with?" The steaming girl kicked over the trash can Samata had once been sitting in and followed up by punching the complex's wall. "And how does she know who you really are? DAMMIT!" She slugged the bricks a couple more times and sent blood dripping down her knuckles.

"Maka! What the-! Crap...c'mon, let's go patch up your hand." I dragged her off into the apartment and took out the first-aid kit.

Olive Eyes glared, focusing at something over my shoulder. "Soul, how does that girl know you? Do you think...perhaps you knew her back when you were in England when you were known as Evans?"

"Wha-? No! I have no idea who this chic is." I replied.

"GOD DAMMIT IT, SOUL! WHAT IF SHE TELLS?" Maka pushed her bangs off of her forehead angrily. I finished wrapping her hand and pried her claws out of her sandy-blonde locks to hold her wrists firmly and stare at her olive orbs. "What'll you do if people find out?"

"Don't know. But for now, we can only hope she keeps her creepy mouth shut. Let's go back to what we were doing, eh? Focus on Kid and Crona."

"Alright then..."

"OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! YOU'RE SOUL EVANS?" A mob of lovestruck fangirls who were part of the 'Soul Eater Fan Club' were riding up on me.

"YOU'RE AN AMAZING PIANO PLAYER!"

"YOU'RE SO HOT~!"

"Do you mind giving me a 'private concert'?"

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

Maka shut them all up with a dark glare and heavy tone, "leave. Him. Alone." I watched as her hands clenched and unclenched, ready for some knuckle-to-nose action.

A platinum-blonde girl snorted. "You're not the boss of us. Besides, I hear you guys are just partners, so hop off his nuts."

My angry, and definite, girlfriend grasped the brat's collar and touched noses with her. "You wanna bet? He's my boyfriend...so how about _you_ hop off of his nuts?"

"Mr. Evans, is this true~?" The girl asked with a pout and shining ice blue eyes.

"Don't you dare call me by that name..." I darkly warned. "Why should I prove anything to the likes of you anyway?" With a bitter scowl, the girl gave me a frightened look and cowered back with her clique. "C'mon, Maka, let's go." The said girl snaked her arm around my waist and we began sauntering away. She then stuck her hand into my back pocket of my blue jeans and made it obvious that she groped my rear; I'm assuming that was to piss the fangirls off purely for her own entertainment. I threw my arm over her shoulder to help with the agitation.

And as if the fanclub wasn't enough of a nuisance, that girl from yesterday had to come waltzing up to us, pink pigtails springing up and down. "Tisk, tisk, tisk, Soul-sempai~! I thought I said that you don't belong with Maka Albarn~!" One auburn eye winked at me and caused Maka's hand to grip my bottom really-and I mean _really_-hard.

"Ow..."

"Sorry." Olive Eyes said. She quickly confronted Samata and spoke in a low, intimidating voice. "Stay. Away. From me and Soul. Or else."

"You're pathetic, Maka." Samata grimly laughed. Her auburn eyes locked onto my sandy-blonde girlfriend and sharpened. "Well, I should go now, shouldn't I?"

I broke in. "Stay away from us." I advocated.

"Oh, Mr. Evans, you're so cute~! Anyway, get to class, Albarn." Her glare darkened when her eyes met Maka's. "Sempai, you deserve so much better than this tramp..."

Before the angered Olive Eyes could do anything too rash, I held her by the elbow and Samata skipped away giggling.

Great. So the little bitch told everyone...she told everyone about the one thing that I ran away from. Who the hell is she...? And who the hell decided to send her after me?


	15. Chapter 15

***I won't be on for some time so I decided to upload the chapter before I went to sleep. I have a buttload of summer assignments to do before school starts (which now that I think about it, I should've done ealier -_-") so I'll be uploading whenever I get the chance to write and when I get my new laptop~! ^-^ Well enjoy this for now~ I'll be back soon~! -Katte Muffinz**

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><p>SE: A Tainted Soul, A Pure Promise<p>

Chapter 15: And So It Begins

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><p>"<em>Hey Cutie...watch out, or someone will get hurt...one day." It was that girl from before...<em>

_Maka's stalker...was joining Noah..._

"Soul, let's try it again." Maka demanded.

"Oi, aren't you getting tired of this? You've searched a million times and came up with nothing. How about we take a break?" I reasoned. She glared at me and brought her hands to her hips.

Leaning forward to touch our foreheads together, she snapped, "Kid's our friend. I'm not giving up."

With a push of my index to her nose, I barked back, "I never said for you to give up. I said take a break. You need some time to think instead of stressing out so much. Go back to being a bookworm for like ten minutes, will you? That's a lot cooler than an uptight lunatic."

"MAKA CHOP!"

"Ah, dammit...did you really have to do that?" My head ached from the smash. She nodded and went off into the apartments. "What? Where are you going? I thought you weren't gonna 'give up'?" Maka stopped in her tracks.

"I'm gonna read a book..." She seemed nervous and a little angry. Then, she stormed down in my direction and dragged me in the direction of our cubicle with her. "You...don't stay out here alone."

"I'm a big boy. I can take care of myself." I declared, only to be shot down by an olive, piercing stare. "Okay, I'm coming, I'm coming." We entered the complex and I could here Maka mutter something about Samata creeping around again.

When we got into our apartment, Olive Eyes shuffled through each volume of text on her shelf and threw one to me; we then went into the living room and settled to read. After about ten seconds of looking at the book Maka handed me, I threw it on the couch behind me and threw my legs up on the coffee table.

"Well, you could've at least said you didn't wanna read."

I retorted with, "yea, but then you'd force me to. So I'd rather throw the book." Maka snorted at me and I shrugged and leaned over to see the title of her text. "_The Theory of A Soul_? Why are you reading that?"

Not looking up, the bookworm dug her nose into the pages. "I need to see if I can extend the reach of my Soul Perception." With a grunt, I threw my hands behind my head and leaned into the cushions. Maka got to her feet with a gasp as she turned to the next page and then began to spring up and down on the sofa. "Soul! Soul! Soul!"

I got up to see what she was causing such a fuss over. "What are you hopping around for?" She showed me the page she had turned to and I read what was written. "'Extending the reach of the Soul Perception ability can be achieved through Soul Resonance.'" My eyes widened. "Our souls can resonate, can't they?" Maka gave me a hopeful, vigorous nod. "Where did you get this?"

"My mama left it with me after she left. I can't believe it, Soul! We can find Crona and Kid!" The girl hugged me and squealed in glee. "Alright, let's get started! Let's go, let's go!" Olive Eyes tugged at my arm towards the door. And suddenly, the phone rang.

Scurrying over to pick it up, I greeted the person on the other line, "hello?"

"Ahh, yes, yes, Soul-kuuuun~! Come to the Death Room immediately with Maka-chan." It was Lord Death. "The rest of Spartoi is waiting. Now hurry on over~!" With a thank you and a farewell, I set the phone on the receiver and grabbed the cruiser keys.

"Let's go! Shinigami-sama needs us and the rest of Spartoi at the Death Room!" The girl took the book and tucked it away, God knows where. "We can go back to the Soul Perception later."

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><p>All of Spartoi was gathered in the Shinigami's office when we arrived. That included Kim, Jacky, Ox, Harvar, and the odd trio, Kilik, and Pot of Fire and Pot of Thunder. Kilik's partners were just mere children; the couldn't even speak yet. But to my great surprise, when Maka and I had gone on group missions with them, they've proved to be quite powerful despite their appearance. So with that said, the meeting had officially took place.<p>

Lord Death took about five minutes to explain the circumstances of the situation at hand. When he was finished, a voice quickly reacted, "they want two million dollars?" Liz despairingly exclaimed. "Th-that's possible, right, Shinigami-sama? I mean, you _are_ one of the wealthiest families here at Death City...you're the founder of this academy, for Pete's sake!"

Lord Death sighed. "Though it will take quite a bite of our savings, this is the only option without blood shed. So let's do it. Spirit, where did you say they would take the money?"

"WAIT!" Maka interrupted. "I apologize for cutting in like this, Shinigami-sama, but I can find him! I have Soul Perception, remember?"

"Maka-chan, you have only discovered your power recently, yes? Not to bring your spirits down or anything as such, but such novice experience can only gain a perception range of about ten meters." Lord Death explained.

The lectured girl stood her ground firmly. "You're not entirely correct there, sir. I discovered my Soul Perception at thirteen. Yes, I know it's only been three years, but I have practiced using the ability on my own. My range is fifty meters." Shinigami-sama breathed an 'oh?' of interest which caused Maka to look at her twiddling fingers. "My mama left me a book on souls. I looked through it and it showed how I can widen my range." Maka manifested the book from her person and flipped to the page that exhibited such information. The Deathscythe and Lord Death both leaned forward to see the text.

The Shinigami spoke. "Ahh, Soul Resonance. But you'd need a strong bond with your partner or you-"

"HAVE TO BE _IN LOVE_ WITH THEM?" Spirit broke in. "N-no way, my Maka is still my wittle pwincess~! She's not in love with anybody! And definitely not this punk!"

"I was never your 'princess', Papa. And maybe I _am_ in lo-" The girl cut herself off and blushed. She crossed her arms and looked away. "Look, let's just get started on finding Kid! You don't have to give that ransom! I'll find where he is and we'll go start up a mission to go take him back!"

Kim wrapped her arm around the inner elbow of Maka's. "Oh, you've always been so obvious, Maka-chan! We all knew you fell head-over-heels _hard_ when you met Soul!" That caused the girl's whole body to flush to a bright red.

"Maka-chan, loving someone is nothing to be ashamed of." Jacky quietly informed, which only caused Olive Eyes to become even rosier, if that was possible.

"GAH! ENOUGH, ENOUGH, ENOUGH! Can we focus, please?" Maka shrieked. "Soul, let's go out to the courtyard here. We're gonna find Kid." She lugged me away with her before any more snickering and pointing could be done.

But she wasn't fast enough.

"KYAHAHAHAHAHA GET THE BAIT, SOUL!" Blackstar wailed. "THE GREAT BLACKSTAR GIVES YOU AND MAKA HIS NOBLE AND GLORIOUS BLESSINGS! KYAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Maka snorted and picked up the pace. "You ready to get our friend back, Soul?" I nodded and she pumped a fist in the air for victory. "Alright!"

We dashed to the school's garden and stopped in the center of the scenery. "Okay, what do I do?" I asked.

"Well, _we_ have to resonate souls first, and I'll lead from there." With a 'how do we do that?', she sighed. "You did it before."

"Yea, but I don't know how. It just happened."

"Well then, relax and try to sense my soul."

"But how do I do that?"

"Fu-! Just relax, dammit!"

I snickered at her. "Okay." She grumbled at me and glared away at a far off plant. "You're cute when you're mad, you know that?"

With a blush, she Maka Chopped me. "Will you just focus? God damn!" She turned around and relaxed her body. I set my hands on her shoulders and tried to zero in on her soul.

_How am I supposed to do this? I don't get what I'm supposed to be looking for!_ Then I heard something. It was a light humming I could hear in the back of my mind. _What's this?_ As I aimed my attention to the buzzing, it slowly elevated in volume and I realized it was as if a piano had one of its keys struck. _A G note...?_ Suddenly, I felt the pull and heard the _clink_ that occurred when I first kissed Maka. _Woah..._

_Woah is right._ A sweet voice was heard in my mind.

_Maka? Get out of my head!_ I yelled in my thoughts.

I could feel her soul heat in irritation. _We're resonating, you idiot! Now pay attention. Help me sense Kid and Crona's soul!_

_I don't know how to, dammit! Oh wait, hold on..._ When Maka activated her Perception, I could hear countless tones all humming simultaneously. _There are so many souls...I can hear them all_... As I listened to the many chords and melodies sang by each soul around us, I found one that seemed familiar. _Is that...?_

_Yea, it's Kid! I can see his soul! _Maka thought. Now that I let this soul resonance stuff sink it, it's kinda cool to communicate through our thoughts. _Yea, it __**is**__ pretty cool, isn't it?_

My brows furrowed and I thought back to her, _you didn't have to answer that..._

I heard her huff and then another idea raced from her head into mine. _They've only taken him a few miles away. We can definitely get him. He's in a...an abandoned warehouse or something...let's go tell Shinigami-sama!_

_And what about Crona?_ She was crazy about finding her.

_Well, I have to widen our range further then_, she pointed out. As she extended the reach of the Perception miles and miles across, I began to feel her soul getting angsty. _We're at three hundred miles, Soul...I can't find her yet! _She panicked.

_Calm down. Keep expanding the search radius._ I responded and squeezed her shoulder in reassurance.

Maka inhaled and exhaled slowly. _Okay._ I felt the presence of billions of more souls added onto the incredible amount I had already sensed prior to the amplification. _Soul...at this rate, I'm going to have to search the whole world! Where could Medusa have taken her?_ Her body began to shudder.

_We'll find her, don't worry, Maka. Let's set our priorities. As far as evidence goes, Crona ran away-We can't prove she was kidnapped by Medusa. Sure, we have an 'M' to go by, but that doesn't prove any speculation to be one hundred percent true,_ I bluntly stated. _We've located Kid right now, so let's just go get him. He's the one who was,_ _for sure, kidnapped. Once we get him back that's when we can go for Crona._

_But even Shinigami-sama and Papa think Medusa is behind all of this! They think that evil woman took her daughter back!_ Maka protested. She was obviously too headstrong to reason with, but I didn't care. _Soul, we gotta find Crona._

I yelled through my thoughts. _Don't you think I believe that too? But we can't entirely be sure. We found Kid first, so he's our number one priority! Crona will be next!_

The soul resonance had broken off in that moment and she fell into my arms. The sudden rush of her hitting up against me made me lose my footing and I fell fanny-first on the luscious green grass. For a second, she didn't speak, but then a whisper escaped her, "okay..." Getting up from under her, I assisted the dazed girl to her feet and she dusted off her skirt. "Sorry." Maka quickly grabbed my hand and we went back to the Death Room to give the others the news.

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><p>Early morning in the following day, Spartoi gathered at the gates of Shibusen to prepare for the departure of our rescue mission. With the sight of Maka holding Mother's scythe, Blackstar wielding his Enchanted Sword, Tsubaki with her chainscythe, Kilik with his gauntlets, and Ox with his lightning spear, I was given a boost of confidence. Although the other partners, including me, had only regular militant weapons, my heart was still filled with determination; we're going to save Kid...and Noah's not getting that ridiculous ransom...<p>

Shinigami-sama advised us that there needed to be someone to stay back to keep communication with the group, so Kim and Jacky were the decided nominees. With Spirit handing each of us an earpiece with an incredibly tiny microphone, we channeled in on each other's walky-talky.

The Deathscythe questioned us, "are you all set up?" He was answered with multiple affirming nods and scanned all of us before giving an affirming dip of his chin. He had one problem-Maka and I were hand in hand, and he had to clear his throat chastisingly while shooting a cerulean glare into my crimsons. I deepened my natural scowl at him and Maka stepped closer to me then squeezed my hand tighter. Spirit grunted in defeat and turned away. "Okay, get going, kids. You have no time to waste."

"Alright then, you heard 'im. Lovebirds, feel free to lead the way." Kilik directed at Maka and I, which brought a tinge of pink to our cheeks.

I hopped onto the orange and yellow cruiser as the runner-up nerd, his quiet partner, the gaunlet-wielder, his young partners and the ninjas jumped into one of the academy's Mission SUVs. Maka snaked her embrace around my waist, secured the scythe behind her, and resonated her soul with mine. As I felt the presence of the numerous souls surrounding us, I pinpointed the humming of Kid's and let its melody guide our way, along with the occasional murmur of 'we're getting closer...' from Maka. We sliced through the streets of Death City and eventually hit the desert sands. When we entered a ghost town, I ceased the bicycle's motor as we pulled up to a shaggy warehouse with a rusted metal plate reading 'Book of Eibon'; I guess this was a bookstore at one point. The group slowly made their way out of the automobile they arrived in.

"Alright, let's save Kid." I declared with a smirk. Loading my M-16, I cocked it back and was ready to start a fight with these bastards. Cool guys never let these kind of people take their friends...but since I failed to stop it from happening, then this is the way a cool guy redeems himself. Maka gave me a prideful grin and spun the scythe with graceful ease. She was definitely ready to beat the shit out of some kidnapping assholes, too.

Liz and Patty loaded their twin pistols and had confidence and hope burning in their blue eyes to rescue their partner, friend, and for Liz, her lover.

Ox howled into the dawn's atmosphere, "Beware the power of the Lightning King!" His partner, Harvar, stood there in his usual silent seriousness and readied his artillery.

Pot of Thunder and Pot of Fire copied what Harvar was doing as Kilik smashed his elemental gloves together and hooted into the air. "Okay! Let's do this!"

"WATCH OUT, NOAH, YOU MOTHER FUCKER! YOU'LL DIE AT THE HANDS OF GOD! YOU BETTER BELIEVE YOU'RE A LUCKY GUY TO BE MURDERED BY MY GLORIOUSNESS! KYAHAHAHAHAHAHA! PREPARE TO DIE BY MY SHINE!" The egoistic boy exclaimed. "YAHOOOOOO! ENOUGH TALK, LET'S GOOOO!" He rammed his skull into the boarded-up entrance as if it were merely paper and whooped and hollered the entire time. I swear, that kid always ruins the chance of a sneak attack...

His meek camellia girlfriend chased after him calling out, "wait, Blackstar! Oh..." The rest of the us attempted to catch up to the power-driven boy who was bound to run into one of the leader's minions soon enough.

...

You better be ready, Noah. You never fuck around with a Shibusen student...especially not their friends...or you'll get hell beaten out of your sorry ass.


	16. Chapter 16

**Ngh, not too proud of this chapter, but oh well~! It's the longest chapter I've written, I believe.~ Anyway, enjoy!**

**By the way you guys, I would really love it if you hit that review button down there at the bottom of the page~! ;D**

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><p>SE: A Tainted Soul, A Pure Promise<p>

Chapter 16: Rescue and Run-Out

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><p>"<em>Hey, Cutie...watch out, or someone will get hurt...one day..." It was that girl from before...<em>

_Maka's stalker...was joining Noah..._

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><p>Easily infiltrating the Noah headquarters, we made it into the main first obstacle- and not quietly, mind you.<p>

"Blackstar! Be quiet!" Tsubaki whispered as she shrouded herself in the shadows.

The boy snorted, "NO WAY! I'M GONNA KILL THIS BASTARD!" Before he could go out in the open to get himself sniped, Maka struck his skull with one of her infamous Chops. He ended up faceplanting and giving a thumbs-up to shut his mouth for one second.

Maka spoke the plan with low audibilty, "alright, Blackstar and Tsubaki, you'll take down all the snipers since you can sneak up on them. Well...actually, Tsubaki, you can do that. Blackstar, you can take down the bulky minions when we get out to the clearing." She clenched her scythe and continued, "if we run into that one scrawny guy and the chainsaw guy, I'll take care of them. I don't sense the Deathscythe, so we don't have to worry about him, thankfully."

"NO WAY! A GOD LIKE ME SHOULD TAKE 'EM OUT!" Maka only shot the Big Star a glare and so he retreated, "fine, fine. But this is only one time, you got me? Your great god is being generous for you!"

"Yea, yea, whatever, Blackstar. Hey! Kilik, you and Fire and Thunder have our backs, got it? Liz, Patty, Ox and Harvar, stay close. You guys will go in with us."

Just before the said group of our friends could answer, a dark voice sighed from behind us. "You kids lose yourselves or something?" It was the chainsaw man, Giriko. He started up his weapon and sent us jumping back when he swung his blade.

"You guys go ahead! We'll take this bastard!" I yelled. Maka took her place at my side then charged at the insane man while everyone heeded the order and ran off ahead. Tsubaki faded into the dark and moments later, you could here the cries of the snipers as she took them down quickly and one by one.

"HEY, JACKASS!" The pigtailed girl sent red and black blade slicing into Giriko's right shoulder. "Stealing our friend was not a good idea. You've left us no other choice but to kill you if you don't surrender now."

"HELL, LIKE THAT'LL HAPPEN, YOU LITTLE BITCH!" He revved the motor of the saw and aimed to rip Maka apart; his offense was diverted by the scythe and while he was distracted by my partner, I released fire onto the crazed man. "AND YOU! YOU THINK YOU'RE ALL COOL? HAVE A PIECE OF THE THIRD GEAR!" Again, he set the chains into the next level of revolutions and focused his reckless assault toward me. "NOT SO COOL_ NOW _WHEN I TEAR YOU TO PIECES, HUH? YOU'RE NOT GONNA STOP US FROM GETTING THAT RANSOM! WE NEED IT FOR OUR HUGE DRUG BUSINESS!" Watching as each of my bullets merely pierced the surface of his skin, he raised his arms to ram the linked spikes down my skull and straight through my torso.

Alert and quick to react, Maka screamed out, "you're not touching him!" She then took her pistol and shot at the man's knees, immobilizing him momentarily; that gave us time to retreat a couple feet from the junkie. "Drugs. What exactly are you talking about?"

"It's like heroine~! Only it's effects make it harder to pierce my body, ya know? Black Blood, I think you already heard about that, was created by that Medusa lady; I think you know her kid." He grimly chuckled and bent his neck in such extreme angles. "Man, it's some great stuff. Really makes ya invincible." As he spoke and eventually cackled nonsense, he continuously bombarded strikes onto Maka with his shackle blades.

"Soul! I can't get an opening! Help me out!" The girl made an extreme effort to shield herself with the crimson-charcoal weapon. Then suddenly, Maka backed into a pile of stray metal poles strewn across the floor and nearly lost her footing; the man caught her off guard and took the chance to slice her from the right side of her abdomen and across. As the chainsaw tore her skin, her blood painted the air around her and decorated the rusted, filthy walls. "SHIT!" She dropped to the concrete floor of the warehouse and let the injury spill over with her bodily fluids.

"MAKA! GIRIKO, YOU BASTARD!" My wincing partner tossed over the scythe signaling me to use the basic skill I had with the weapon. With a confident nod, I set my loathe-drowned focus on the ginger spikes of the offender's head and sheered the red and black cutlass through the atmosphere and onto him. It was like trying to cut through a damned brick wall! With a roar, I pushed harder and pierced deep through his flesh, sending 'Black Blood' dripping to the ground. When the screams of agony left Giriko's lungs, I hustled over to my injured lover's side. "Oi, I'll get you taken care of, alright? You're too cool a girl to die by this guy."

The scratching sound of the communicator in my ear shot off. "Guys, it's Kim! How are things holding up?"

The first response was a whoop from Blackstar. "YAHOOO! WE KICK NOAH-ASS!" I could hear the rest of them hollering in victory as well.

"We've made it to the doors of Noah's 'office'. Now all that's left is waiting for Soul and Maka to finish with the chainsaw man." Ox specified.

Maka gathered her strength to bring her hand to her ear to press the 'talk' button. "We're not- doing so hot, you guys. I-I'm injured by- Giriko." With each pause, she huffed from the searing pain of the gash across her abdomen. As I acted as support to help her onto her feet, her eyes widened immensely, "SOUL, LOOK OUT!" On instinct, I dove to the ground while trying not to land on her with my all weight. Quickly, she gathered my M-16 which lay within arm's length of her and her wrist was sent to rest on my shoulder to be used as a stand. "You're ear might buzz from this..." She pulled the trigger and rained the man with a shower of ammunition at full velocity. I watched as each crinkle on her face appeared from the endurance of the recoil and the anger boiling though her veins. She coughed and red liquid spilled from her lips, but even so, she managed to smear a smirk on her face and curse, "heh, got the bastard in the face." And as she sighed those words, a loud thud barked behind me and I gave her my signature shark grin.

"You're really stupid for a nerd."

"Well, what can I say," she winked. "I'm reckless."

With a light chuckle, I set her steady and handed her the scythe. "Anyway, we can't let the rest of them get Kid back without getting in a couple of _reckless_ hits at Noah, now can we?" With a reload to the military rifle, we set off to find the rest of Spartoi.

But not before being stopped by another enemy.

"DIIIIIIEEEE!" A squeaky voice descended from above us and bullets that appeared to be black feathers showered us with their violence.

"You again?" Maka shouted.

It was that scrawny guy-the one who took Kid away. "My name is Gopher. And Maka Albarn, you're gonna have to die. Noah-sama said so." Again, he took his unknown artillery and shot his bullet feathers at us. "Noah-sama says you're valuable! Noah-sama says he wants to hold a goddamned ransom for you too!" The toothpick cried out in a mocking tone. Not ceasing fire, he continued to rant, "you should know, Maka Albarn, that you're a blessed little bitch! I wanna be held for ransom too! I wanna be special to Noah-sama! But it's all of you guys who are!" He lugged out a bazooka and shot it at us, "NOAH-SAMAAAAAAAAA!"

"WOAH!" We just barely dodged the blast and Maka went to charge at the hysterical man. His black scraggly hair was clipped just slightly when my partner swung the red and black blade at him. "What are you talking about? You crazy jackass!" Stabbing the cutlass into the ground, she stood on the shaft and punched Gopher dead straight in the face. The man flew back a couple of feet howling 'NOAH-SAMAAAA!' and skid across the warehouse floor.

"I-I can't fight like this...Noah-sama~!" Gopher retreated toward his leader's lair but only made us follow him.

"COWARD! GET BACK HERE!" Maka screamed as she dashed ahead of me and after him.

"Oi! wait up! Don't continue to fight! Just follow the damn guy!" I caught up to my partner and pursued the man while staying at her side. As we rounded a corner, what came into view was a wooden door, despite the metal work of the building, and displayed across it was a strange pattern. When we had finally caught up to Gopher, Maka kicked him from behind and knocked him into the door, causing him to fall into the next room.

"Wow, took ya long enough. What? Were you two making out or something?" Backstar teased. Maka blushed and a vein pulsed in her forehead as she pointed to the injury that had been inflicted by Giriko. "Pfft, that's nothin'. I would've taken that asshole down in one swing by my mighty fist! Kyahahahaha!" He threw his balled hand into the air in triumph.

Kilik interrupt, "well now that the lovebirds are here, let's get this party started!" He smashed his gaunlets together and hollered out a cheer.

"Fear the Lightning King!" Ox screamed. He pushed the talk button, "Kim, are you impressed by my manliness?"

We all heard her reply through our earpieces, "yea, yea, sweetheart, get going with your mission, will ya?"

"Alright, let's do this!" The whole group exclaimed-except for Harvar who simply adjusted his shades and nodded- and charged at Noah.

"None of you children are worth a ransom." The gang leader hissed as he maneuvered himself to cause all our attacks to clash with one another. "You're not taking the young Shinigami back...I want that ransom..." He attacked with some kind of weapon that took the shape of giant worms. He whirled them around like octopus tentacles and whipped us all to the ground. "If I get that two million, then you can have your little friend here. My deepest apologies, but you're not getting what you want until I get what I want."

"I'LL BEAT THE SHIT OUTTA YOU! HOW ABOUT THAT?" Blackstar, with pure killing intent shown in his eyes, threatened. He dashed to the man and slashed him with the katana he wielded. "BE GLAD THAT YOU'RE DEATH WAS BESTOWED UPON BY A GOD!"

"Tch, if you were a god, I would've taken you in for ransom by now." The blue-haired boy froze in rage and was smacked away by one of Noah's worms.

"Don't mess with the Lightning King!" Ox stabbed at the leader with his lightning spear and electrocuted the man. "Are you underestimating my power? I may not look like much to you, but you can't judge me by that, naive one." Harvar, his silent usual self-even in battle, held his assault rifle to the man and fired.

Noah used his worm as a shield and then slapped the Ox's quiet partner away. "Lightning 'King' my ass. You're not worthy to me."

"IS THIS WORTHY ENOUGH FOR YOU, ASSHOLE?" Maka, enraged, attacked from above and struck Noah hard with the scythe sending the man's blood gushing through the air. She stumbled back in a cringe from her own injury that was inflicted earlier.

"You're most definitely worthy, my young lady. But shit...I don't think I can handle all of this..." The captain signaled the rest of the gang, "NOAH! Withdraw! We can no longer sustain this fight."

"HELL NO!" I interceded, "you think you're getting away that easily?" I bathed Noah in bullets and blood sending an impulsive Gopher as his aid. All of the sudden, I felt my knees buckle, followed by the sight of all my comrades body slamming the ground as they lost control of their limbs. "What the fuck did you do, you bastard?"

"Dirty mouth you have there, boy." Noah smirked.

It was the complete opposite for Gopher. He bit his upper lip and pulled the corners of his mouth into a deep frown; his eyes widened as if he had been purely petrified and appalled at something I had said to him. "YOU DON'T TALK TO NOAH-SAMA IN SUCH A MANNER!"

"Gopher." The leader darkly warned.

"My deepest apologies, Noah-sama..."

The severely injured enemy then called out to what seemed like no one. "Miss! Please come out, I'd like you to announce our departure now." As the rest of Noah appeared, there were no girls anywhere in sight. Well, at least, not until _she_ was conjured from the shadows.

Her annoying, pink, curled pigtails bounced as she skipped toward my unmoving body. "Hey Cutie...watch out, or someone will get hurt...one day..." It was that girl from before...yes, it was Samata. The one who had been following Maka around. The one who told me I wasn't even supposed to be with Maka. The one who's throat Maka nearly ripped out. And now she was here? What exactly is happening?

Maka's stalker...was joining Noah...?

"YOU AGAIN? GODDAMMIT! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO, BITCH? I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" Maka forced her screech, still in agony from the gash. "HOW DID I NOT SENSE YOUR PUTRID SOUL?"

"Oh, calm your ugly little head, Albarn. You're gonna get your friend back. But you better be careful about what you do with Soul...or how you talk to me or Noah-sama. Or something very, very bad will happen." She patted Maka's head which forced Maka's angry self to attempt a bite at the girl's hand. "Bad girl!" Samata slapped my partner across the face.

As if Maka couldn't get any more infuriated, this one girl managed to send her spiraling through a whole different level of rage. "BITCH! I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD, I'M GONNA RIP YOU APART!"

"Don't make empty promises, Albarn." She knelt down and glared into Maka's eyes. "Really, Soul-sempai, you deserve way better than this. Come join Noah, and you can be with me. I'll take better care of you than this trash ever could."

"What...did you just say about Maka?" I growled. "YOU COULD NEVER AMOUNT TO HOW AMAZING MAKA IS! I'M DONE WITH YOU PISSING HER OFF AND TELLING ME THAT SHE DOESN'T BELONG WITH ME! HOW THE FUCK WOULD YOU KNOW WHO I BELONG WITH?" I began to regain feeling in my limbs again and attempted to pick myself up, though failing at first. Man, outbursting like this? Not cool. "You...don't know anything about me." At last, I got to my feet and stomped to where the girl was. Picking her up by the collar, my crimsons gleamed with fire to murder this stalker; Samata gave me her best pitiful look with her sly auburn eyes, but it didn't work with me.

"Sempai!" She cried out helplessly.

"DON'T GIVE ME THAT SHIT!" I raised a fist to her and caused Samata to flinch. Seeing that, I realized that this was truly uncool...more uncool than just screaming at her. So I roughly threw her to the concrete at the same time Maka regained her mobility. My fuming girlfriend picked the girl up by the throat and punched her with all her might, sending Samata flying then skidding a couple yards away. Maka began to fall to the ground, so I scurried to her side to catch her. I sat her down and tried to help the others up, but they were still claimed by the numbness of their appendages.

Noah spoke once more, "well, we bid you ado, children, until next time." A grim chuckle escaped him as Samata took her place at his side and held his hand. The Noah group disappeared ending the violence.

Maka sharply sucked a breath in. "What? Th-they're...I can't sense their souls anymore! I can't sense any of them! What the hell!" The girl screamed. Kneeling down next to her to help support her injured self, I set a hand on her shoulder to calm her.

"It's over, let's help the others." I cooed. With a click of a button, I checked back in with Kim. "Yea, we got Kid back. We'll return to the Academy in a little bit."

At that moment, everyone else had regained their movements and began to unchain Kid.

"YO! KID! WE GOTCHA BACK, MAN! HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE BATHED IN THE GLORY OF THE GREAT BLACKSTAR AGAIN?" The Big Star bumped his knuckles with that of the young Shinigami's.

"Ahh, Blackstar, to my surprise, it's quite relaxing." Kid laughed and returned the friendly gesture.

Tsubaki offered the OCD child a companion's hug and warmly greeted him, "it's wonderful to see you again, Kid!"

"KIIIIIID~!" The two Thompsons ran up to embrace their partner-in the most asymmetrical way possible.

"You guys...do you mind hugging me a little more...symme-"

Liz cut him off by locking her lips to his. It caused the black and white-haired boy to flush a deep red. "Shut up, Kid." She wrapped her arms around the back of his neck and sobbed joyously, relieved that she had her lover back.

"Loooooookie~! Kid's so red~! Awh, Onee-chaaaan, you make Kid so happy!" Patty rolled around giggling and bubbly as ever around the warehouse grounds.

"Patty, that's unsanitary! Who knows who else has stepped in here? Get up right now, I don't want that filth in the mansion!" Kid flipped. We all chuckled at his rich-kid urges of keeping everything clean and tidy.

"Nice to have you back, man. How was the service here?" Kilik joked and pounded knuckles with the OCD child.

Kid replied in the same manner, "oh, it was quite wonderful, really. Getting a punch in the gut just to see that lovely face Gopher makes."

Ox was the next to greet the young Shinigami. "Hey, Kid-kun, welcome back!" The swirly-glasses the boy wore glint from the morning sun that had just begun to poke through a hole in the ceiling. Harvar gave a simple, 'good to see ya again' and a firm hand shake with Kid. Pot of Fire and Pot of Thunder wrapped themselves around Kid's ankles and giggled their childish laughs into the air.

"Oh look at you two~! So perfectly in sync, symmetrical! So lovely~! Ah! You two are just adorable!" The boy let his eyes shine in the 'magnificence' of the toddlers' flawless unison. "It feels great to be back everyone. Well, how about we report back to my father and then get ourselves bandaged up? I believe we'll all be finished with that by lunch time. Does lunch at the mansion sound good to you guys?"

"Sounds awesome!" We all cheered.

"Great~! Let's get going!" And with that, we packed our weapons and headed back to the Academy.

* * *

><p>When the first-aid treatment and the check-in with Lord Death had been completed, we headed back to the Shinigami mansion. It was much like the one I had lived in back in England, and had servants fluttering around to and fro when their master returned. The chefs finished preparing the meal about half an hour after we arrived-which was enough time for my stomach to digest itself.<p>

"So, tell me what's happened over the week you guys." Kid set his intent, golden irises in the direction of Maka and I, who were holding hands.

I nervously chuckled, "well, just before we walked back into the chaos, Maka and I made it official out on the balcony." With a gentle kiss pressed to Maka's cheek by my lips, she blushed and smiled at me as she took her seat at the table.

"Oh~! How wonderful~! It's not like it was much of a surprise though."

"Shut up." Maka and I growled simultaneously, but blushed too, which caused the group to laugh.

Kilik had a mouthful of many expensive delicacies when he blurted out, "OHH YA, PAH-DY AN I AWR DATHING." A choir of 'HUH?' left the mouths of Spartoi. The gaunlet wielder swallowed his food and chugged down a glass of lemon-lime soda, then sighed in satisfaction. "I saaaaaaid, 'Oh yea, Patty and I are dating!'" Another 'HUH?' was sung by the voices of the elite group, only in an astonished manner this time. "Yup. Come 'ere, babe."

Patty giggled and hopped up to give Kilik a kiss near the lips. "Ewwie, no kissy on the lips~! You got food all in your mouth~!" She bounced back over to her chair and devoured her plate of fancy eats like a starved coyote.

"You have quite a woman to handle, my friend." Kid warned.

"Pfft, I can handle it."

"When the hell did you guys start dating?" Liz asked. That caused all our attention-even Harvar and the toddlers-to zero in on Kilik for an answer.

But Patty was the one who replied for him. "Sis~! We've been dating for two months~!"

"WHAT?"

"YEEAAA~!" The girl giggled. Looks like they're good at laying low...

"Damn, you guys kept so quiet..." Liz murmured. "So anyway, Ox, you and Kim got it going on too? She called you 'sweetie' through the communicator."

"Oh, yes, she finally accepted my love for her~!" The spear wielder sang. His swirly glasses along with his bald head glinted from the chandelier above. "I have to grow a full head of hair for her, but it's a request that I'm willing to fulfill for my love~!" Ox reached over next to him to kiss his pink-haired girlfriend. She gladly took the gesture, but then pushed his face into his food and giggled. "Ahh...yea, you're a feisty one..."

"Thanks sweetheart. So Jaaacky~! I know you and Harvar have something going on, don't you?" Kim slyly pinned the gossip-hungry attention on the girl on the other side of her, who was now blushing madly. "Soo...?"

"Y-yes, Kim-chan. We're...we're taking it slow. We only go on dates, b-but we're not together." The lamp-wielder fidgeted around and stared into her food as a distraction.

Silent old Harvar finally spoke up, "well, I think it's appropriate that we make ourselves official, don't you think my darling?"

Jacky pretty much hit the ceiling when she jumped out of her chair. "O-okay."

"Awh, you're adorable when you get like that, Jacky-chaaan~!" Kim mocked. The brown-haired girl flushed a deeper red and got a calming hand on the shoulder from her new boyfriend.

"ALL OF YOUR RELATIONSHIPS ARE PATHETIC COMPARED TO MINE AND TSUBAKI'S! KYAHAHAHAHAH!" The egotistic boy used the table as a stage and cackled with a fountain of his chewed meal spraying everyone. "YOU GUYS MUST BE JEALOUS, BECAUSE WE'VE ALREADY HAD THE GODLIEST SEX EVER!"

If there was a contest to have the most chewed food spit out onto a dining table, I think we'd win the grand prize...

I softly stated, "Blackstar, maybe you should've saved that for after we ate..." I shut my eyes and palmed my face. "Or for your own brain to think about..."

Tsubaki was red all over and screamed in a whisper, "BLACKSTAR!" She hid her face behind her hands, but I'm sure she could feel the burning of Kid's perverted smirk aimed at her. Maka and the rest of the gang was jaw-dropped; I pushed Maka's chin back into place before it could touch the ground. Patty fell into her usually gait-cracking up on the floor and kicking her legs around like an infant would.

Blackstar victoriously chuckled once more, "TSUBAKI, YOU WERE REALLY LUSTY FOR MY DI-" A shurikan appeared in the boy's forehead. He descended to the ground in the most ungraceful way and conjured a huge thud from the landing. Showing a thumb in affirmation, he choked out, "gotcha...I won't talk about your lust..." That only gave him another ninja star to the face and a more-than-extremely embarrassed girlfriend.

When lunch was over, we left the mansion to Kid and Liz, and Patty and Kilik. Each of the newly found couples made their ways home, which included Maka and I. By the time my partner and I entered our apartment, it was two in the afternoon.

* * *

><p>"Kid loves gossip..." Maka muttered as we plopped onto the sofa together.<p>

I responded sarcastically. "No way, really?" With a smirk, she pushed my cheek and followed with a peck to my lips. I gave her a sly grin. "Come here..." I gave her a gentle pull at her hips and molded her to my body with her legs on either side of me. Our tongues instantly found each other and danced to an unheard melody.

She ceased the kiss and brought herself away. "Nuh-uh..." Maka smiled at me and pinched my nose. "No celebrating until we find Crona."

"Oh, c'mon, just a little?"I gave her a smirk. She brought her lips to mine once more and made a 'mwah' sound before lifting herself away off of me. She held her stomach-where she had been injured-and grabbed the remote off of the coffee table.

"That's it," Maka declared. With that said, she turned on the T.V. and cuddled up against my ribs with my arm over her shoulder.


	17. Chapter 17

**Oh my gosh, holy crap guys, I'm so sorry I haven't been updating for like a whole month. I was so busy with school, deviantART requests, and all that stuff. Ahck! And this chapter is like so short and kinda crappy compared to other chapters! D: i'm sorry, i got a little rusty~ ): well, i'll work on getting it better, i just really had to update. Anyway, enjoy~ ^-^ BTW, yea, a whole summer passed from last chapter to this chapter, so sorry if it's a bit confusing.~**

* * *

><p>SE: A Tainted Soul, A Pure Promise<p>

Chapter 17: Fluff, Fluff, and Crona

"_So...Maka?"_

"_Yes!" She cried jubilantly. "Yes, I'll marry you!"_

* * *

><p>"Hey, Soul...?" Maka asked me as we walked down the flight of the complex staircase.<p>

"Eh?"

She wore a long face, her olive eyes glazed with anguish. "It's been the whole summer...and we still haven't found Crona..." A frown spread across her lips so I took her hand in mine gently. "Do you think we'll ever find her?"

"I'm sure we will." Sending her reassurance through a small smile, I changed the subject, "now c'mon, don't be so gloomy. Weren't you excited to be a junior this year?"

That seemed to rip her mind from the depression in her heart. "Are you kidding? Yes, I'm excited! We just have this year and next year, then we'll be done with high school, then I'm gonna go to college and, and-" With my index and thumb, I pinched her lips shut and glared at her.

"Alright, alright, I get it." Maka, slightly embarrassed, shut up and averted her eyes from the my crimsons. "Let's get going. I know you'd die if you were late on the first day."

* * *

><p>It was fairly easy to adapt in a couple of days at the beginning of the year. I practically had the same classes as last year- they were just oriented differently in the class period slots. Before I knew it, the month was no longer September, but December. Better yet, today's Friday and next week will be winter break.<p>

"OH. EM. GEE. Girls, we are soooo going skiing over the break!" A brunette declared amongst her clique.

"Yea!"

"OhmahGod, what are we gonna wear?"

"Dunno! Let's like, go shopping or something."

"SHOPPIIIIING!"

Under my breath, I muttered, "ugh...shut up...hearing this crap is so uncool..." My forehead met the desk in front of me and my ears ached from the squeals and shrieks of the hyped ladies.

"YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" A familiar voice pierced my eardrums.

"God...no..." A ego-radiating body brought itself face me.

The arrogant voice spoke again. "SOUL EATER EVANS! YOU WILL CHILL WITH I, THE GREAT BLACKSTAR, AND KID AT MY PLACE AFTER SCHOOL!"

"Oi, Blackstar..."

"YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO SPEAK UNLESS YOUR GOD TELLS YOU TO!"

"Shut up." I was suddenly taken face to face with the blue haired boy by the collar.

"What...did you say?" His emeralds glared into my crimsons for just a moment before we both cracked a smirk. "Sup, bro. What's up with you? Do you need to bask in my glory for a minute?"

"Nah, I think I'll be fine without it. I just can't wait till we get outta here. All these girls running around and squealing is so not cool." I sighed.

"Yea. Or is it...that you're excited..." Blackstar elbowed me in the ribs. "...to lay Maka over break?"

"MAKA CHOP!" From behind the blue haired boy, a book fell down hard onto his cranium from a certain sandy-blonde, olive-eyed girl who I labeled as my girlfriend. Her face was a deep red caused by humility and anger. "Blackstar..."

"Well wow, Maka, thanks for saying hi to your god." Another Chop struck his skull and he was out.

From out behind Maka, Tsubaki scurried over to tend to her idiotic boyfriend. "Hello there, Soul!" She sang out before frantically setting Blackstar's head in her lap and fanning him with a piece of paper.

"Oi, Maka, ahh, I guess I'm gonna go chill with Blackstar and Kid later. Cool with you?"

She pecked my nose and smiled. "Yea, it's fine. I was kinda gonna go shopping with the girls later anyway." I groaned. "What?"

Laying my head back down on the desk, I spoke quietly, "it's nothing. I just heard a bunch of annoying chics screaming about shopping earlier." Maka glared at me and crossed her arms.

"You know, Christmas and a little _something else_ is coming up so we're going to look around for _presents_." Was that supposed to be some sort of hint at something? "Besides, do we look like the bunch that would go off screeching like that?"

"Ye-" Before I could complete my response, I was knocked to the floor by her trusty text that magically concealed itself on her person.

* * *

><p>"See you later, Soul~" Maka gave me a quick hug and kiss before running off to meet up with Tsubaki, Liz, and Patty.<p>

"Oi, you better be careful." I called out to her.

She giggled. "Alright, _Dad._ Don't do anything stupid!"

With a smirk, I turned around and huffed a laugh into the cold winter air. "Heh, you know I can't promise you that."

"So Mr. Lovebird, when are you planning to fuck her?" Blackstar asked with a perverted grin smacked across his cheeks.

Kid commented as well, "I don't mean to be vulgar, but I do agree with Blackstar. When will you do it?" His saffron eyes glimmered with misconstrued thoughts.

"Guys, no. If she doesn't wanna do it, I'm not gonna force her."

That put an end to the hopeful glint they wore.

"Wait, I overheard Maka talking to Liz and Patty. They were talking about...ahh, let me see...oh! Maka was going on about what to get you for Christmas and I believe your one year anniversary?"

"OH SHIT! It's been a year already?" I asked myself aloud; I also felt like a jackass for letting it slip my mind.

_-"You know, Christmas and a little __**something else**__ is coming up so we're going to look around for __**presents**__."-_

I smacked my forehead. "Dammit, that's what she was hinting at! When is it...when is it...?" With a pinch to the bridge if my nose, I thought up a storm. "AH! It's on fucking Sunday!"

"HEY, SOUL! YOU SHOULD FUCK MAKA ON YOUR ANNIVERSARY!" Blackstar screamed.

"Shut it, Blackstar."

"HEY! Don't talk to your god like that! I should kick your ass."

Ignoring the egotistic boy's outburst, I asked, "what did you guys get Liz and Tsubaki on your anniversaries?"

"I got Liz two bracelets."

"I got Tsubaki earrings and my dick."

"Blackstar, can you not make things so perverted? I seriously wanna make it special." My blue-haired friend looked as though he was gonna say 'then fuck her' so I interrupted before he could get the words out. "And no, I am _not_ gonna have sex with her if she doesn't want it."

Blackstar sighed and threw his hands behind his head. "Fine. Get her a necklace or something."

"Ooooo~! Yes, yes! Something that matches her eyes or your eyes!" Kid balled his hands and bent his arms so that his fists were at his chin. The Shinigami's eyes were filled with stars.

"Kid, Blackstar, that's a great idea. Thanks a lot." I grinned. "Now, help me pick it out. I'm not so great when it comes to stuff like this."

* * *

><p>"Oi, Maka, wake up. Makaaaa~?" I whispered softly and nudged her.<p>

Maka's petite figure groaned and pulled the comforter over her head. "Ngh...I'm sleepy...~"

I persisted, "I made a special breakfast."

"Oh, really?" She slowly pulled the blanket away to reveal her face and stared into my eyes. "What is it?"

"You'll have to get up and see for yourself."

"Okaaaay, fine." Maka smiled and lifted her torso off of the bed to stretch her arms and back. "Mmmmkay, let's go see what Mr. Evans cooked up~" The girl took my hand and I led her out of the room and to her dining table seat. "Woah, what's that?"

Laid before her eyes was the special breakfast I had eaten over a year ago-the day before I left England. It was the special crepes my mother made me; set on a plate was hotcake that was cooked to a lovely shade of golden brown and was filled with the numerous diverse fruit drowned in the delectable syrup that completed the treat. "It's a recipe my mother taught me. I don't know how it tastes yet, so I'm not exactly sure if I got it right."

"Then sit down and eat with me, silly!" She forced me onto my seat and benched herself to her own. Maka took a forkful of the meal and sighed as the flavor quickly spread across her tongue like wildfire. "Soul, this is delicious!"

I took a bite out of my food as well. To my surprise, it was exactly the way I remembered it-it's like taking a bite out of heaven. "Thanks, I'm glad you like it."

"Teach me how to make it!"

"Maybe some other time." Maka groaned and but didn't argue and just continued to chow down. It took about forty-five minutes before we had consumed the breakfast we had on our platters. Knowing I was already dressed to go out and about on the streets, I alerted my partner, "oi, when you're done, get showered. I've got something planned for us today."

"Oh~?" She replied with a smirk. Her chair screeched when she pushed it back to get up and put her dish in the sink. "Okay, give me like twenty minutes." I nodded and she was off.

I found Blair's food in the small pantry we had and filled her bowl. "Here, kitty. Come eat some breakfast." The feline came stretching out from under the sofa and yawned when she got to the kitchen. Blair did her normal routine of greeting me by rubbing up against my leg and purring. With a stroke between her ears, I pointed in the direction of her bowl and told her, "now go eat. Maka and I will be back later, alright, Blair?" She meowed and dug into her meal. I stood up straight and sighed to myself, "alright, everything better go according to plan." I reached into my pocket to feel for the box holding Maka's present. "Okay, good, I have this with me."

Going into Maka and I's bedroom, I looked into the vanity to assure myself that I didn't have any straggling breakfast in my teeth and my hair wasn't too messy. Sliding the box out of my pocket, I took a peek at the accessory that would soon be worn by Maka. That's when the said girl walked in, only clothed in a bath towel. "Oh, Soul, you're in here."

"GAH!" I scrambled to jam the gift back into my pants' pocket. "Uh, yea, I'll let you get dressed."

"Wait." Just as I was about to walk out of the door, she grabbed me by the wrist. "What'd you put in your pocket, Soul?"

"You don't need to worry about it quite yet. Just get changed, we gotta go places."

"Okay, okaaaay." Maka groaned. "Oh, and Soul, Happy Anni-"

"Not quite yet, sweetheart." I smirked at her and caused her to tilt her head in confusion.

"Eh?...n-not quite yet? What do you mean?"

"Just, not yet. Now hurry, we're gonna miss the movie." Still holding the smile, I shut the door and waited for her to throw some clothes on.

* * *

><p><em>We live in Nevada...shouldn't it be warmer than this? <em>The icy air pierced my lungs as I trudged on and froze my fingers to the point where I couldn't move them fluently. _It's a good thing I'm wearing something warmer than just a thin sweater..._ I wore a black, double-breasted peacoat while Maka wore one of the same variety, only in a cream color. She was wearing white, calf-high boots and black jeans that clung to her figure nicely. My jeans were a faded gray that was slightly baggy around my rear and was fit around my ankles. On my feet were black, Authentic Vans. I inhaled and coughed a little from the frigid atmosphere.

"Soul, where are we going now?" Maka curiously poked my face. I didn't answer. "How'd you sit through that chic-flick? And how did you know I wanted to watch that?"

Still, I gave her no response. "Sooooul, stop being a jackass and answer me."

"Chill, Maka. Look, we're here." I pointed to a small shack that had the heading "Mama's Hot Chocolate" glowing in bright red, puffy letters.

Maka looked just a tad baffled. "What the...? This is like, in the middle of nowhere. How'd you stumble upon this little thing?"

"Well, I went out walking one day and just found it. I thought I'd go in and try some hot chocolate, found out it was pretty good. Come on, let's go in."

When we stepped inside, the boreal temperatures left behind us.

"Welcome, welcome." A wrinkle-faced woman greeted us with a friendly smile.

"Hello there." I replied in a benevolent tone. "Well? Go and see what you want, Maka. She knows my regular."

"Ahh, I don't really know what to get, so order two of your regulars."

"Gotcha. Excuse me, Madam, can you get two of the usual?" The woman nodded and went to the back to prepare it.

We found a seat in the corner of the little shop and sat patient for our beverages. Olive Eyes burrowed her stare dead straight into my face. "Soul..."

"What?"

"You...you're so sweet." The grin she gave me was a toothless, tender one. "So who are you, and what did you do with the real Soul?"

"Why you little bitch..." My signature shark smile reared itself upon my lips and set my hand on the top of her head. She giggled and grabbed my wrist. "So I'm not allowed to be nice to you?"

"No, no, that's available twenty-four hours a day." Maka's bubbly giggle made my heart jump a little- it was just so cute. "So after we're done here, what do you have planned next? Or is everything a surprise?"

"Surprise."

"Damn," Maka cursed. "Well, it's not like I didn't expect it to be."

The elderly woman called from behind the counter. "Young man, young lady, your drinks are ready. Careful, they're hot."

I walked over to the counter and payed for the hot chocolate. "Thank you. Have a nice day, ma'am."

As I handed Maka's cup to her, the old woman hollered out, "thank you, you too."

And with that, we were back strolling through the bitter temperatures, but with the hot beverage as our shield.

* * *

><p>"Where are you taking me now? Can we slow down? We just ate dinner, I'm gonna get a cramp!" I covered Maka's eyes with my hands and pivoted her body to face the various directions needed to get to our destination.<p>

"No, we're almost there. It's really important so just calm down and let me be the eyes." I stated. When we got to a gloriously lit fountain in the middle of Death City, I stopped and revealed the sight to Maka.

It was an amazing sight; the light emitting from the fountain was gorgeous against the dark night atmosphere. The water was just slightly frozen and had ice floating about in the liquid. For some odd reason, there were rose petals scattered about-but who cares? It set the mood perfectly.

"O-oh...my...God..." An awestruck Maka barely whispered. "Soul..."

"Wait, there's one more thing..." I reached down into my pocket and pulled out the gold-colored box that held Maka's gift. Slowly opening it, I revealed to her a simple, white-gold chain-link necklace with a small and simple pendant; it was made up of a spherical emerald wrapped in silver. At the end, the silver curled up into an elegant swirl. "Happy One Year Anniversary." I took the jewelry out of the package and chained it around her neck. It hung down to just past her collarbone. It glint from the light of the fountain and caused her eyes to look a deeper forest hue.

Those eyes of hers began to well up. "S-Soul...I...Happy One Year Anniversary to you, too...how much did you pay for this?"

"Well, Kid was kind and bought it for me to give to you for this anniversary, so it didn't cost me anything. You like?"

"I love it~! Here, I got you something, too." The overwhelmed girl pulled a golden chain bracelet with a thin plate tag that was part of the circumference of the accessory. On the plate tag, my full name-including my pseudonym- was engraved in cursive. Soul Eater Evans.

"Maka, this is cool. I love it." She linked it around my right wrist and smiled while staring into my crimson orbs. I wrapped her into my arms and let my chin rest on the top of her cranium. "I...I love you, Maka..."

"I love you too, Soul..."

There was the sweet resonance again. It wasn't like the one we'd force to happen- it's that resonance that was a complete accident... the resonance that made me feel warm inside...the resonance that made me feel complete and sound...because of this one girl.

"Today was amazing...and especially tonight..." The girl in my arms whispered. I nodded and caressed her chin between my folded index and thumb. My lips were then gently brought down to hers and we indulged in the passion between us. "Soul, the night just got better."

"Hmm?" I stared into her joyous olive orbs. "How so?"

"When we resonated just then...I got a sudden burst of Soul Perception...and I found Crona's soul."

"Well, let's work on finding her in the morning when we have energy. I'm sure you're totally worn out from me bringing you everywhere?"

She giggled and nodded. "Piggyback?"

"Alright, hop on."


	18. Chapter 18

***Hai gaiz~ ^-^ i've finally updated(; now I have a favor to ask, for those of you who read this, PLEASE press that little review button at the bottom and tell me what you think~ Thank you~! Now enjoy^-^**

**~Katte Muffinz.(;**

* * *

><p>SE: A Tainted Soul, A Pure Promise<p>

Chapter 18: Found

"_So...Maka?"_

"_Yes!" She cried jubilantly. "Yes, I'll marry you!"_

* * *

><p>Junior year had passed us by so quickly; it was already summer again. Maka also hasn't been able to sense Crona's soul for months now, which had quickly caused her sliver of hope to dissipate. I remember the last time we could find a trace of her was on Maka and I's anniversary and Christmas...after that, it was like she dropped off of the face of the Earth again.<p>

"We're never going to find her." Maka frowned and shone her dull, saddened olive orbs at me. "I...I don't understand why Medusa had to go and take Crona..."As she spoke, her melancholy expression soon turned to fury; her bangs shaded her eyes and she bared her teeth, punching the bedroom wall in front of her at the same time.

Taking both of her fists in my palms, I pulled them to my chest and tried to gain eye contact with her. "Look at me." She refused. "Maka. Look at me." Small hiccups escaped her along with tears rolling down her cheeks and falling to the wooden panels from off of her chin. "Crying's not gonna help anyone. If you really want to find her, you're going to have to try harder." Maka's eyes menacingly pierced my gentle gaze and took me aback slightly. I regained my composure when she sighed and nodded. I smiled at her. "Now are you ready to go to the beach?"

Pulling her hands back so that she could wipe her cheeks, she pulled up the corners of her lips back at me. "Yea. I'm ready now."

* * *

><p>I decided to lay on the blue checkered blanket under the rainbow hued umbrella that Tsubaki set up. I then unbuttoned my white polo to reveal the scar that I bore across my chest; the cool breeze countered with the sweltering, chuckling sun felt good against my bare skin and outstretched legs. Maka was wading in the water with the girls and Blackstar was messing with Kid while he was trying to barbecue the kabobs symmetrically.<p>

"SOUL!" It was Maka's voice calling me. The white-rimmed shades that rested upon the bridge of my nose was taken between my index and thumb, then was raised above to my forehead. "SOUL, COME HERE!" The girl flailed an arm into the water and smacked a sparkling wave of the salty aqua into the sunlight.

"Ngh, what? I'm busy." Putting the specs back over my orbs, I ignored Maka's calls to goof off in the ocean. With only seconds of peace, I heard the sand around me being kicked up. "What?" I asked with a harmonizing harsh and drowsy tone. I chose not to open my eyes, hoping she'd just huff at me and punt sand onto my sleeping figure at the worst.

Olive Eyes didn't bother to say a word. _Slush._

"Wait, what the fuu-" Suddenly, I was drowned in a bath of ice-chilled sea water. My maroon trunks darkened from the drenching attack. "GAH! Maka!" Said girl simply giggled and stuck her small pink tongue at me. That's when I realized the periwinkle bucket she held in her right hand. "Damn you..."

"You mad?" She teased. "If you wanna do something about it, then you're going to have to catch me first." She winked and stuck her tongue out at me. The girl's left palm met her rear-which was covered by a faded red bikini bottom with skulls shaped like Lord Death's mask imprinted onto the cloth. Her chest was covered by a halter bikini top which had the same pattern inscribed as the bottoms; it cupped her small breasts well, considering how tiny they were.

Without a word, I lifted myself up off of the sand and hid my eyes under my snowy bangs. Maka gave a slight pause, pondering the reason for my silence. "Maka..." I smirked, revealing my signature, shark-like teeth. "You're gonna pay for that."

"Uh-oh." The olive-eyed girl grinned and began to scurry away, but before she could get far, I grabbed her by the waist and pulled her down onto the blanket with me. "Awh man, you caught me~" Maka huffed and turned onto her stomach to face me.

With a playful glare, I slyly spoke, "I didn't just catch you...I'm gonna get you back." Her eyes widened and she murmured a 'huh?' My body pivoted in a way that sent her underneath me; with that, I lifted her off of the cloth that lay under us and dashed down to the ocean waves, Maka kicking and scream-giggling across my shoulders. Her skin was already dried off from when she was in the currents earlier. _Good...now it'll be cold on you,_ I satisfyingly thought to myself. "Ready for pay back?" Flipping her off from around the back of my neck, she screamed and splashed hard into the water, now freezing on her revealed body.

"COLD, COLD, COLD!" Maka screeched. Her eyes fluttered to meet mine in a puppy-pouting style. "You jerk!" She splashed the saltwater at me with a smile and tugged my ankle, sending me bottom-first onto the slushy sand. Her pigtailed, dull-blonde hair was dripping with seawater and had some sand infused in it; the way she fooled around in the ocean like that made her look like a toddler. "Hey, Soul. You know, this is the first time I've been happy while I was at the beach." I didn't speak, but my body did for me; it slumped over, and my face twisted into astonishment. Her eyes softened, thinking back on her previous trips to the beach. "Papa and Mama tried taking me to the beach on several occasions. It always ended with me crying from their constant arguments." Her eyes moved down to her hands which were fiddling with the sea. "So for once in my life, coming to the beach is actually pleasant." The girl's olive orbs made their way to contact my crimsons; she then shut them and tilted her head to her right with a giggle.

"You mean you haven't been to the beach with the rest of them before?" By that, I meant the rest of the gang- Tsubaki, Blackstar, Kid, Liz, and Patty. "I mean, you should've been able to have fun with them." She shook her head. "But why?"

"Papa always wanted to come with us to make sure no one treated me like some sort of broad." She grimaced to the side.

I tried to read her expression. It was that of pride, disgust, humiliation, and anguish. _Man, she's so mixed up...And her dad got in the way of her being happy...?_

Before we could get into anything too depressing, Kid and Tsubaki called us from the grill. "HEY, LOVEBIRDS! LUNCHTIME!" Blackstar and Patty had already started by devouring whatever was set in front of them. Liz simply sat far away from the mess, attempting to eat her own meal without having the food from the monstrosities fly onto her plate.

I stood and felt the swishing of the waves around my ankle as I offered my hand to Maka. "Let's go eat." I grinned softly.

Her expression mirrored my own, "alright~" We bustled to the table before the food-fiends before us could finish every last bit of the barbecue.

* * *

><p>After the midday meal, we all slammed ourselves onto the large cloth under the parasol-well, except for Blackstar. He claimed he was too godly to lay with us 'peasants' so he decided to go for a swim.<p>

Just about ten minutes later, he began to scream in agony. "FUUUUUUCK!"

"Blackstar!" Tsubaki called and immediately raced to his side. "Blackstar, what's wrong?"

I called from the umbrella. "He probably got a cramp."

"SHUT UP, PEASANT!" The blue-haired boy screamed out.

I smirked, "I knew it..." My lips murmured into Maka's soft locks. She was taking a cat nap on my chest, her hand resting flat over the scar. Her body was so warm against me, and her skin smooth as satin...I smiled and began to lull into microsleep as well...

...but was rudely taken away from my few winks of rest.

"HYAAAAAAAAAAA!" That screech... "DIE!"

_-"Hi, I'm Crona."-_

We all jumped to our feet. _It...It can't be..._That was the only thing that echoed through my thoughts.

The familiar voice's face was hidden behind the uprise of sand clouds. "Hello again...Maka. Soul."

_Crona...How did Maka not sense her?_

"CRONA!" Maka screeched. The offender's face finally faded into sight and we were certain it was her. Crona only looked at the sandy-blonde and chuckled darkly. This was obviously not the friend we knew... "Crona, what's wrong with you?" No answer was vocalized; instead she was just barely grazed with a greeting from Ragnarok. "MEDUSAAA! WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO HER?" Maka roared into the air, hoping the snake-like mother would hear her. Maka dug into her beach bag and dragged out her pistol. Aiming, she fired five rounds at the crazed girl. The bullets simply bounced off which brought a cackle to Crona's lungs.

"B-black bloooood~ Heeheehee, you can't hurt meeeee, Maka-chaaan~ I'm invincible! Hyahahaha!" Her body bobbed back and forth as she wobbled toward us. "I...hehehehe, I killed Medusa-sama. She wasn't-she wasn't Medusa-sama. She hugged me, I didn't know how to deal with that, so I stabbed her...buahahaha, she kept saying 'I love you,' what does that mean? What does that mean? Look at me, my blood is blaaack~" She grabbed her face and clawed at her own skin. She's lost...the Black Blood drug has driven her to Madness... "Why would she say that? I don't know how to deal with love. What's love? Maka-chan, do you know~? How do I deal with love?" A forced, hair-raising grin was plastered across Crona's cheeks; it reached ear to ear and let twisted giggles escape through her teeth.

Maka's eyes narrowed; it was obvious she was trying to hold back the tears. "Crona...I'm sorry." Olive Eyes grabbed an army knife from her bag and charged for the drugged girl before us. Just as the blade was to touch Crona's flesh, Maka broke her ducts' barrier and let the tears roll down her cheeks. The knife didn't penetrate Crona's skin easily at first, so Maka used all her weight with a scream...her target, Crona's jugular. The girl's blood, tainted black, was sent spraying through the humid summer air and painted the beach with a tar color; she fell to the ground, landing on her knees then fell flat to bathe in her own cruor. "Crona...What did she do?"

She was answered by a sarcastic, foreboding snicker, which turned into a full-on sinister chortle.

"Why did you do that Maka-chan? I don't know how to deal with you hating me. How do I deal with it? Why do you hate me Maka-chan?" The girl raised Ragnarok once again and attempted to strike my partner once more.

"I-I don't h-hate you." Maka hiccuped with each stutter. "Crona, what did Medusa do to you?"

Another spine-chilling giggle escaped the lunatic's lips. "Who's Medusaaaaa~?" She pulled herself up and pushed off of the ground, regaining balance, but just enough to stand. "I don't know how to deal with people I don't know. Do I know you? Ragnarok, what do I do to this girl?" She wobbly waved the sword in her face and stared into its red lips with one eye half-closed.

While Crona was pondering to herself, Kid took his guns and pulled the trigger at her pink-maned head. The rain of bullets were followed by a slash of a chain scythe, inflicted by none other than Blackstar. I on the other hand, was paralyzed, not knowing whether Maka would get hurt by Crona, or if I go for an attack and hurt Maka emotionally in the process...I knew the rest of the girls' thoughts were about the same.

More of her vital fluids sprayed the area. Dark splotches appeared before my bare feet. "Is that so, Ragnarok? I have to kill her? All of them? Okay, if you say so." I can't believe it...she wasn't even fazed by the bombardment of artillery.

"GUYS, STOP! DON'T HURT HER!" My lover shrieked. We all looked back at Maka, watching her break. Her cheeks were tear-stained and her voice was hoarse. She was hysterical. Maka lunged forward and stole Ragnarok out of Crona's grip.

"MAKA! She's going to hurt you!" Kid yelled out.

Blackstar chimed in, "LISTEN TO YOUR GOD! BACK THE FUCK UP, I'LL DEAL WITH HER!"

Olive Eyes stared back and furrowed her brows in heartache, only to charge forward and embrace her insanity-driven companion. "Crona, come back to us. Medusa's gone, you don't have to listen to her anymore! Her wishes of you are gone! Don't listen to them! Don't listen!" She cried frantically, her eyes still spouting the waterworks. "Come back to us!"

Somehow, that got to Crona. "Maka...you are Maka. I can't kill...not you, not a-any of you..."

The relieved bookworm pulled back and smiled, at the bloody mess she had in her arms; her tears still flowed down her cheeks, only with a jubilant emotion. Maka gently brought a book to Crona's cranium; I don't even understand how the hell she conjured that thing up...she was half-naked for Goodness' Sake!

"I-I'm s-s-sorry, Maka! I di-didn't want to hur-hurt anybody-y!" Crona sobbed onto Maka's shoulder. With slight demonic giggles still escaping from the Black Blood's affect, the deep, forest eyes of Maka's softened and she stroked the lamenting girl's pink, choppy locks.

"It's okay now, Crona. You didn't hurt us. You're back now, and that's all there is to it," Maka hummed.

"Look, Onee-chaaaaan~! Crona wants to be friends again!" Patty pointed and giggled to her older sister. Even if you don't have Soul Perception, you can feel the automatic change in everyone, deep down in their souls.

"Yea, Patty~ C'mon, whaddaya say? Let's tell Crona how much we missed her?" Liz said in a voice you'd use for a kindergartner.

"YAY! YAY! YAY!" The bubbly girl exclaimed and ran toward the hysterical nervous wreck with a bear-strong embrace. "Crona-chan~! I missed you! Where did Crona-chan go? Did your mommy do experiments on you~?"

"MuhMuhMuhMuh...I don't know how to answer that! How do I deal with not knowing the answer?"

Liz apprehensively chuckled under her breath and pulled Patty away from the pink-haired girl who was now breaking down. "Let's not overwhelm her with questions."

Kid approached cautiously. "Hello, Crona. Are you alright?" That seemed to frighten the girl a tad, so he lowered his intimidation level. "It's good to have you back."

"YO, CRONA! HOW ABOUT A SIGNATURE FROM NO ONE, BUT I, THE GREAT BLACKSTAR?"

"Uahhh..."

Blackstar received a Maka Chop, "don't freak her out like that!"

I walked up to where the two were still sitting in the sand. "Oi, Crona." I knelt down and stared into Crona's navy eyes. "Welcome back."

She gulped in anxiety, but then realized I wore a toothless grin on my face. Her eyes calmed and shined with the friendly gesture plastered across her lips as well. "T-thank you."

* * *

><p>We left the beach early since we had finally found Crona. It took about four hours to get back to Death City. When we finally arrived, she was brought to Shinigami-sama where he checked her into the Death City Rehabilitation Center. From all the years that Medusa had injected Crona with the Black Blood drug, she was in dire need of rehab.<p>

* * *

><p>"Finally..." Maka whispered when we returned to the apartment. "We finally found her, Soul." She did nothing but glow to her fullest...It's the first time I've seen her like this. "Today was amazing."<p>

"It _was_ pretty great, wasn't it?" I grinned at her and entered the bathroom. Peeling my sand-filled trunks off of my body, I stepped into the shower to rinse off. When I finished, I pulled my cerulean sleeping shorts on, left myself without a shirt, and stepped in front of the sink. Smearing toothpaste onto my toothbrush, I was just about ready to get to cleaning my teeth. That's when Maka came into the room, cloth bundled in her arms. "Were you waiting for me to finish?" I set the bristles to my chompers and whisked away.

"Yes?" She set the bundle on the toilet and spoke in a tone in which she was indicating it was supposed to be obvious she had been waiting.

After a minute of not answering, I spit out the suds from the toothpaste. "You know, you could've just joined me-" My skull met her book once again and her flushed cheeks came into view. "Alright, alright, _sorry._" I groaned while rubbing the afflicted area. Maka huffed and stepped into the shower, making it obvious that she was going to keep the curtains closed. The faucet started up again for about five minutes or so, and after it shut off, she reached her arm out from behind the curtain to get her clothes; when Maka stepped out, she was fully clothed in a thin, white nightgown and dripping hair. I left the restroom and entered the bedroom while Maka took her turn at the sink to clean her teeth.

I stretched my body out and slammed down on the mattress. _Today was really exhausting...even though no fighting really happened._ My limbs were cast across to each corner of the full-size as if I were chained down. I sighed. The lights were dim and I was just about ready to fall asleep when Maka finished in the bathroom, came into our sleeping chamber and sat on the edge of the bed. "Hey..." I mumbled. Just as I began to scoot over for her, she stopped me. "What is it?"

"Remember I told you we wouldn't celebrate til we found Crona again?" Maka's eyes looked almost black in the dim atmosphere, but I could still see a forest hue shine through. I nodded. "Well, we found her, right?" she grinned while crawling towards me; she spread her legs on either side of me and pressed her body close to mine. I could feel the small lumps of her developing breasts on my chest.

"Wh-" My face began to burn, and I'm pretty sure my cheeks glowed the tint of my eyes. "What are you doing?" _Does she want to...?_

"I'm celebrating." She whispered in my ear, which caused me to flush a deeper red. _Why am I the one getting all embarrassed? This is uncool!_ Her lips made their way along my jawline to my lips. Her mouth opened slightly, embracing my lips, letting ourselves melt together in the kiss. I could feel the static from her tongue just trying to pull mine. Listening to the want, I let my tongue glissade between her lips to dance with her own. My arms instinctively wrapped around her back and slowly slid down her sides, capturing the shape of her small curves and hips. When my hands reached her rear, they then glided behind her thighs and pulled her closer; I rolled over and sent her to the bottom of the passionate moment. Kissing down her jaw to her neck and sucking at the base of her collarbone, I caused light moans to escape her throat. She intertwined her fingers in my snow white locks and wrapped her legs around my waist.

"What happened to you? You're being all submissive now." I smirked into her neck and dragged my tongue down between her breasts, pushing another whine of pleasure out of her lungs.

She said nothing, but responded by pushing me off and throwing me back down onto the mattress. Maka giggled evilly, sucking a trail of kisses up and down my neck. Her lips navigated themselves back to meet mine, our tongues instantly meeting once again. The sandy-blonde ran her hands down my abdomen and reached for my the waist band of my shorts. She pinched my bottom lip between her teeth playfully, "ny~a." _Oh, so she's playing Naughty Kitty?_ Just as she began to tug at my britches, I stopped her. "Eh?" I could see a small frown crease into her beautiful, angelic face.

"Sorry, sweetheart." I whispered. "I have a feeling we'd both regret it in the morning if we ended up...getting busy." My crimsons stayed glued to her olives until she softened her astonished, somewhat hurt look.

She smiled. "I think you're right..." Maka's lips touched mine gently, not hungrily like they had been moments before. "Thank you." She trundled off to her side of the bed and got under the covers. "Soul Evans, have I ever told you that I love you?"

"I dunno, maybe you'll have to refresh my memory?" My shark grin crept its way across my mouth.

"Well then," she nestled her cheek into my chest and sweetly murmured, "I love you."

"What's that?"

She smacked my chest and raised her voice some, "I love you, Jerk!" The giggle that followed made my heart flutter.

"Heh, I love you, too, Tiny Tits."

...

Around six in the morning, I woke to a headache and a sleeping Maka dimly lit by dawn breaking through the window. _The little bitch Maka Chopped me unconscious! But, I'm okay with it...why am I not surprised?_ I lightly laughed to myself, causing Maka to stir and swivel so that she faced away from me. I wrapped my arms around her and whispered in her ear, "I love you too much to give a shit about getting Chopped..."


	19. Chapter 19

**Hey gaiz~! ^-^ I haven't updated in so long! I've just been so busy, I'm so sorry! :c Okay, well a couple things on this chapter, I mentioned the songs "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol (b/c my boyfriend serenaded me with that c: ) and "Perfect Two" by Auburn (b/c it's so cute :3 ) so enjoy~! You can find the original on deviantart(.com) under the user "mudkipzRkewl"**

**okay, no more waiting! You may read now. c:  
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><p>SE: A Tainted Soul, A Pure Promise<p>

Chapter 19: Let's Move Along With Life

"_So...Maka?"_

"_Yes!" She cried jubilantly. "Yes, I'll marry you!"_

* * *

><p>The June sun beat down on my snow white locks as I strode my lazy gait to the Shibusen doors. "Is school over yet?" A sigh escaped me, which automatically brought a smack to my shoulder by none other than my violent girlfriend, Maka.<p>

Surprisingly, we had already managed to scrape by the whole year in a flash from September to June-now. "Soul, we're seniors and these are our last few days of high school! Enjoy them while they last, stupid!" She grunted. "Just wait, you'll miss it once we leave."

"Yea, yea. Whatever." I waved her off, grabbing her hand and entering the Shibusen building.

Just as we rounded a corner into the commons area, we met up with Kid and the Thompson sisters; as usual, the OCD boy and Liz had their fingers laced together. "Hello, Soul, Maka. How are you?" Kid asked.

"We're good. I'm so excited for graduation tonight! My mama's even coming from where ever she is to see!" Maka replied. "Ohh. But I have to admit...I will miss Shibusen." We all nodded in agreement.

"Well, just cuz you graduate doesn't mean that Shibusen will disappear. Liz has been graduated for three years; she still came to see us. And Tsubaki graduated two years ago, yet she still comes to see her idiot boyfriend, Blackstar."

Patty giggled and screeched, "yahhhh, Maka-chan! Onee-chan comes everyday to see Kiddo-kun and Patty-chan~! And Tsubaki-chan sees the dummy all the time~!"

"Patty, weren't you supposed to graduate em_with_/em Tsubaki?" Maka curiously asked.

"Hehe, oopsie~! Yesh, I was. But Patty-chan failed twice~ oh well." The bubbly girl shook it off with a chuckle and ended up on the ground, cycling her feet in the air like a three year old.

A vein in Kid's forehead pulsed, and his teeth clenched. "Patty, get up. The floor is filthy." em_There goes his rich-boy urges..._/em Cackling away like there was no tomorrow, the younger Thompson picked herself off of the floor as Kid and Liz began to walk to class. "Well, the bell's about to ring. We'll see you later then, you two!"

Saying our goodbyes, we walked the opposite direction to our class, our fingers intertwined.

_Oh that's right..._ I thought. _I have to pick up the ring I got customized back in May..._

_...  
><em>

Just as Maka and I made it hand-in-hand to the last four-way intersection before reaching our apartment, I stopped.

My partner kept her pace, but was yanked back since I was anchored to where I stood. "What is it, Soul?"

"I'll meet you back at home. There's something I need to get." I kissed her forehead and pecked her sweetly on the lips. "Careful walking, kay? Call me when you get home."

"Okay, okay, _daddy_." She sarcastically countered. "The apartment isn't that far; I'm sure nothing too dangerous will happen to me. But I'll call you anyway. See you later." With that, her lips quickly met mine once more and she was off.

My feet took me a couple blocks over to where the local jeweler was. As I made my entrance into the establishment, the doorway overhead rang a _jingle_.

"Soul! My man! How ya doin?" The cherub, rosy-cheeked clerk, Lorenzo, waved and made his way around the counter to meet me. He shook my hand and pulled me into a quick hug.

"Lorenzo, hey man. I've been cool, like usual. How've you been?"

"Great, great." He replied. "So you're here to pick up that 'special order' for Ms. Albarn?"

"Yes, sir. Planning the big time tonight." I gleamed a shark-toothed grin.

"AHAHAHA!" Lorenzo's hand found itself pat down firmly on my shoulder. "That's mah man, Eater! Go get her!" He shot me a praise-filled smile and went around to the 'Employees-Only' backroom. "Gimme a sec, I'mma go get it."

"Alright, gotcha." Flashing a salute, I leaned against the clerk-counter as he went about his business.

A few moments later, the man came back with a black velvet box. He walked around to the back of the cashier and revealed the beauty to me. "Here it is." Inside the container was a silver band topped with a small gleaming diamond wrapped in a ring of gold. "Just right?"

"Perfect." My voice barely whispered in awe. He shut the box and handed it to me. "Thanks man. She's gonna love it."

"No problem!" Just as I turned to go, he called out once more: "hey."

"Yo?"

"Good luck, man." The cherub gem dealer gave a thumbs-up and grinned.

"Thanks again!" I stepped outside of the door and took in a deep breath. "Alright. Time to get ready."

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><p>*Graduation Night*<p>

"Hey, Soul. You remember when I was talking to Kid, Liz and Patty about when they graduated and stuff?" Maka asked me.

I was in front of the mirror straightening up my tie. It was just about time to begin leaving the house for our graduation ceremony. "Yea, what about it?"

"Weren't you supposed to graduate last year? I mean, you're like a year older than me." Maka sauntered over in an olive-hued, elegant dress, which reached to just about halfway down her calves. She straightened my tie-since I apparently didn't do it correctly by myself- and looked into my crimson orbs, awaiting my response.

My hands found their usual spot in my pockets. "Well, no. I'm a few months older than you, but I'm still in the same graduating class as you." She smacked her forehead. "Why'd you do that?"

"Wow, do I feel like a total airhead. I didn't think that one through." Her eyes met the ceiling. "Sorry about that. Blonde-moment."

"Definitely a blonde-moment." A smirk crept its way across my lips, immediately resulting a Maka Chop-which I caught. _I'm getting good at this..._ "Alright, let's go before you have another moment." We dressed ourselves in our black gowns; the tassels on the hat being red and white- then went off.

...

Our graduating class made their way to the football field just behind the school. There were regular steel folding chairs set out in numerous rows across the grass. All the seats were placed to confront a hastily built stage decorated with garlands and glitter. Streamers of white, black, and red were twisted together and hung off of the table where we were to receive our certificates. To the left of the stage sat an oak podium, twinkling with rubies and silvers, and in conspicuous, bold numbers, was 2012- the year of our class.

"Wow, the decorations are pretty good!" Olive Eyes smiled, stars gleaming in her beautiful orbs. "Can you believe it? We're graduating already. And after the ceremony, we only have two more days of being students of Shibusen." Her flawless face showed she was excited, yet, there was a hint of sorrow. It's understandable...I feel that way too.

"Ahh, well we can still visit, Babe. Besides, we live close to the school so it won't be much of a hassle to get here anyway." Smiling, I kissed her forehead and gently squeezed her hand in mine. "Now let's find our seats. The ceremony's about to start."

Suddenly, a woman with the same sandy-blonde hair and olive green eyes as Maka approached us.

"Mama!" Maka released my hand and jumped into her mother's arms for a long, affectionate embrace. "Mama, mama, I'd like you to meet my boyfriend, Soul!" The excited girl tugged on her mom's appendage in my direction. "Soul, this is my mother, Kami."

"Hello, Soul! I've heard a lot about you! It's a pleasure to finally meet you!" Kami stretched her hand out to me.

Taking her welcome, I said, "Same goes to you; the pleasure's all mine."

"Well, now that we got the greetings out of the way, I'm going to find a seat away from your father, honey. Find your seats, too! Now go! Shoo!" The woman said with a little push to our backs.

As we walked away to follow her orders, I spoke, "you're mother's a...uhm...an upbeat person."

"Is that a bad thing?" Maka asked.

"No, no. I'm just not used to upbeat." With the conversation getting more awkward by the second, I found her seat and nudged her down. "I'll see you up there."

"Kay, Soul." Leaning down for a kiss, she grinned slightly before I turned on the heel and found where my seat was.

...

After the ceremony had gone underway, I sorta spaced out through the first hundred students receiving their certificates. Kim and Jacky graduated with us, and so did Ox and Harvar. Kilik graduated when Patty was supposed to, but he still comes to the school to help with Pot of Thunder and Fire.

"And those are all of our graduates of 2012! Give them all a round of applause!" Shinigami-sama cheered.

As the audience whooped and hollered, us, the class of 2012, rose to our feet and threw our caps into the air and hailed to the clouds and the fading sunlight. The whistling shouts and the baritone yells harmonized as the numerous hats showered down.

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><p>Later that night, we all went to Kid's mansion to throw a graduation party.<p>

_Damn, when was the last time he threw a party...?_ My mind drifted back to the last gathering we had. _Oh that's right...not since he'd been kidnapped..._

"WOOOW, KIDDO-KUN~!" Patty squealed. "This is gonna be so AWESOME~!" She squeezed Kilik's hand and jumped into the air. Releasing her boyfriend's hand, Patty bolted straight for Kid and embraced him to join in her joyful hopping.

"Do you mind...jumping around in a more...symmetrical order, Patty?" The OCD in the poor lad's brain made itself known once more. His nostrils flared with slight annoyance at bubbly girl's actions.

Liz intervened. "Now now, Kid. Let's just calm down, get changed and get partying!" She yelled enthusiastically.

With that, we threw off our graduation gowns in a choir of high-spirited yips and squeals.

The ladies followed Liz and Patty to their bedrooms to get themselves into some more regale-suitable uniform. As they departed, giggles, hugs and cheek kisses were found present and abundant. Us guys made our exit to Kid's room; the only difference was that we didn't have as much physical affection with one another. Of course, we had our arms over each other's shoulders, but it was nothing compared to our female companions.

When we finally entered the young Shinigami's slumber chamber, we found our separate sides of the room and turned to change. Horseplay such as cracking our shirts at each other like whips took place, leaving red marks lashed across our backs.

"Hey, hey, hey! Not the dress shirt, please, Blackstar!" Kid yelled. "I don't need wrinkles in my finest of linens!"

"HA. Loosen up, don't be an uptight rich kid snob. I'm not afraid to punch you in the face if you keep being a brat." The egotistic boy contorted his face into the most asymmetrical way he could. Man, did that every muscle in Kid's body cringe.

I intervened. "Hey guys, let's hurry up and not keep the ladies waiting." Feeling through my pockets, I found the tiny, onyx container I picked up earlier. A smile crept onto my lips. _This is it._ I thought.

We made our way back to the lobby where the gathering was just getting started. Music had already been playing, guests were arriving, and the food tables were seized by none other than Blackstar and Patty.

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><p>It was about midnight when I made my way through the crowd to search for Maka. "Maka?" I called. "MAKA!"<p>

A young lady noticed my cries. Her cerulean eyes met my crimson. "Maka's over by the punch bowl, Soul-sama."

"Oh, thank you so much."

She smiled, "no problem!" With that, I followed the girl's direction- low and behold, Maka was there.

"Hey there, Beautiful." I kissed the sandy-blonde girl gently. Then, to her surprise, I backed up and offered her my hand. "Would you like to dance?"

Her peachy cheeks immediately flushed to a tomato-red hue. "Oh hey! O-of course, Soul!" She giggled as I swept her off to the dance floor.

The song amiably playing through the stereo was "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol.

"Soul...you've never done this." Maka shyly muttered into my shoulder. "...w-why are you so...so jubilant tonight?"

"Well, tonight's just a really special night. I might as well." I said with the intention of asking that certain question running quickly through my head.

The petite girl neatly pressed up against my body perked up. "Oh, because of graduation and this being the first party at Kid's place in a long time? I get it." She chirped with a grin.

A smirk found its way across my lips. "Uh-huh, something like that."

Just as the song finished, Maka sighed heavily. "Soul," she whispered with a blush. "I-I need to...sing something for you." My partner bit her lip. "A-and you can't laugh, and you have to really listen to the words to get what...what I'm trying to ask you, okay?"

A slight burning came upon my cheeks as well. "Uh, sure thing."

The girl scurried over to where Kilik was, whispered in his ear and received a nod from our friend. He then called out to someone at his left and in seconds was handed an acoustic guitar. Maka pulled him onto stage, where she tapped on the mic and cleared her throat.

"H-hello, everyone. I hope you're enjoying yourselves!" A nervous giggle escaped her. _I wonder what she's up to with this song..._ "I'd just like to sing a song f-for my boyfriend, Soul Eater Evans, over there." She pointed. "Soul, this is all for you."

With a cue to the gauntlet wielder, she made her entrance after the acoustic intro.

I recognized the lyrics. They were from that one song...ah, what was it? "Perfect Two" by Auburn. I'm surprised she knows it...she has such an obscene taste in music. When Maka's sweet voice had finally reached the chorus, I didn't quite get the message as to what she was asking me until she got around to singing it the third time.

_You're the one I wanna marry._

_ Is that it? Is that's what Maka's trying to ask me...? S-she really wants to marry me, too?_

The sandy-blonde girl ritardando'd to the end of the tune and received numerous variations of applause; whistles, cheers, clapping, and all that good stuff. She sheepishly grinned widely, then turned her attention to me.

"So, Soul? D-did you get the message?"

I made my way to the stage. "If asking for my hand in marriage was your message..." Getting down on one knee, I pulled out the box and held it forward. "...then yes, I believe I understood you correctly." My fingers pried the container open. "I'm in love with you, Maka Albarn. We've been through it all and you're my best friend. So, will you marry me, Tiny Tits?" I smirked.

I received a Maka-Chop (no surprise there) but was then confronted with sass. "I asked you first, Mr. Evans."

"Lady's first." I said. She glared at me. "So...Maka?"

She couldn't keep this pout up forever. And soon enough, she cracked a smile and burst into tears, "Yes!" She cried jubilantly. "Yes, I'll marry you!"

The crowd began to coo their "Ooo's" "aww's" as I slid the ring onto Maka's left hand; she wrapped her arms around the back of my neck and pressed her lips joyfully to mine.

"WAAAAAAAIT JUST A GOD DAMNED MINUTE!" That voice...it's em_him_/em...it's...

Spirit.

"YOU JACKASS! WHO SAID YOU CAN GO AROUND MARRYING PEOPLE'S DAUGHTERS LIKE THAT?" He shoved his finger into my face, then fell to his knees and grabbed onto my, now, fiance's leg. "Makaaaaa, you know Daddy loves you! Why are you just gonna give your hand in marriage to this chump? Don't marry this...this...this HOODLUM!"

"Maka..." _Here it comes..._ "CHOP!" Like always, a dictionary-thick text slammed into the cranium of the girl's father. "Papa, I love Soul. He's gonna be your son-in-law and you're just going to have to deal with it. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a phone call to make to Mama. At least SHE'LL be glad to hear this." With that, Maka left with her dad sobbing on the ground.

Getting into my own thoughts, I made a small shout-out to my mother in my head, _Hey, mother...I'm gonna be seeing you soon. Just you wait. You're gonna love Maka._

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><p>After Maka and I got home, we went straight for the bed.<p>

"God, I'm so tired..." Maka groaned.

"Me too." We both stripped down to just our underwear and climbed onto the mattress. She pulled the comforter over us and snuggled up against my chest.

"Soul?" I answered her with a 'hmm?' as she continued, "when's the wedding?"

"When do you want it? It's up to you. I know you wanna go to college."

"Hmm...how about...spring?Right before the spring semester of college?" I saw her smile in the moonlight peeking through the window shades. "We need some planning time."

"Sounds good to me." I agreed. It was silent between us for a moment, only the sound of our breathing, of our hearts beating gently. "Hey?"

"Hmm?"

"I love you, Maka."

"I love you, too, Soul."


End file.
